Church register

England and Wales, Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977

England and Wales, Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977 · 1588–1977

FamilySearch · FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/

Denomination: Non-conformist
Place: England and Wales
Register type: mixed
Years covered: 1588–1977
Archive reference: RG 4-8
Provider: FamilySearch
Form accessed: index

familysearch.org ↗ retrieved 2026-09-08 Added manually

FamilySearch's index to the registers surrendered to the Registrar General in 1840 and 1857 and now held at The National Archives as RG 4 to RG 8 — the birth and baptism registers of Protestant dissenting congregations, Roman Catholic missions, the Society of Friends, and the two central registries (Dr Williams's Library and the Wesleyan Metropolitan Registry). Index only: it gives the event, the date, the parish or town, a page number and the parents, but NOT the denomination, the chapel or the RG piece — those are on the register image, which is at Ancestry and on microfilm. Because dissenting registers record a date of BIRTH where Anglican registers of the period record only a christening, an English 'baptism' index entry that carries a birth date is a strong sign the entry belongs to this series.

Cited by

England and Wales, Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977 Page 9 · Date 27 February 1806 Secondary

England and Wales, Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977 · 1588–1977

For William Finch & Mercy Walker

Samuel Finch | Event Type Birth | 27 February 1806 | Event Place "-, Rayleigh, Essex" | Page Number 9 | Father William Finch | Mother Mary Finch

The same row, cited here for the parents. It is the fourth independent naming of this couple as Samuel's parents — after the 1849 St Vincent passenger list ('Father Wm, Mother Mercy'), the FamilySearch christening index ('William Finch, Mercy Walker') and the cemetery index — and the first from an official register series. It also tells us where to look for the rest of their children: whichever Rayleigh congregation kept this register, its baptisms are the sibling set, and the Anglican register demonstrably is not.