WHITEHOUSE FAMILY HISTORY CENTRE

The WFHC Birth, Marriage & Death records

Section 1 - short general introduction

Section 2 - summary of contents & links

Section 3 - detailed explanations

1.  INTRODUCTION

This document is the gateway to accessing WFHC files of births, deaths and marriages.  It provides links to individual files, which (with one exception) are MS Excel spreadsheets. All files relate only to the WHITEHOUSE surname.

The series of files beginning “B SR 1837-1911.”, M SR 1837-1911..” and “D SR 1837-1911..” includes an extraction of Whitehouse births, marriages and deaths in the statutory register (SR) indexes for the British Isles (BI) from the start of registration up to the end of 1911.  These files are believed complete for England & Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.  All these indexes cover deviant spellings of the surname.

The births index for England & Wales contains mother's maiden surname (MMS) for 1837-1911 harvested from the GRO (England & Wales)'s online index.  However, this has many omitted entries and errors, some resulting from mistranscription of the copy certificates sent in by local registrars, but many obviously a result of the registrar writing the word as he heard it spoken to him. The WFHC has rectified some of these errors, but they require investigation, so it is still a work in progress.

The marriage index has been enhanced in three ways:

(a) it contains a high proportion of names of spouses, dates of marriage and the church or Register Office where the marriage took place;

(b) a high proportion of the marriages are marked with “f” , “p” or “s”  in the column "Det" (details).  These symbols indicate that the marriages have been extracted from church registers or certificates and details shown in the separate “M BI SR DETAILS" file.  Each marriage occupies at least two separate rows for groom )M), bride (F) and additional rows if there were more than 2 witnesses. The symbol "f" means full details except for the names of the clergyman and/or registrar and in some instances the number of the marriage in the register; "p" means partial details including the fathers of the parties and the date and place of the marriage; "s" means a smaller amount of detail than "p".  The details taken from church registers are in many ways more authentic than a GRO certificate (which is a mere clerical copy).  The details are downloadable here entirely free of charge and therefore a great way of avoiding paying for a marriage certificate.  Further, they enable searches to be made under the name of the father of either of the parties marrying; and

(c) it is referenced with WFHC tree numbers and so can be linked to census returns and probates which are also referenced; because they have been annotated with WFHC tree numbers, the marriages here are also an important means of finding whether your Whitehouse line is connected with that of a WFHC correspondent.

The deaths index contains ages at death and calculated birth year. For England & Wales,it contains a valuable feature, believed not to be found elsewhere, namely of showing the registered exact ages of infants under 2 years old ("z").  This enables the index entry to be matched with a burial in a church register.  After the new GRO deaths index was brought online, it became apparent that the ages of infants had been added as a mere number, without qualification as to years, months, weeks etc.  After queries from the public, all such ages were rounded to the age last birthday, i.e.0 or 1.  Before the rounding was uploaded, WFHC transcribers had been noting the original number.  It has been assumed that this "z" age is .months, but this is not guaranteed.  This index is put on the website in two different sorted formats, one by the year of death and age at death and the other by the calculated year of birth.  The calculation has been done by subtracting the age at death from the year of death, without any regard to the time of year and is therefore approximate.

2.  SUMMARY OF CONTENTS & LINKS

2.1  THE STATUTORY REGISTER INDEXES TO BIRTHS, MARRIAGES  & DEATHS (BRITISH ISLES)

B SR 1837-1911 240101.xls (GRO England & Wales Births 1837 Q3 [starting 1st July] to 1911, Scotland 1855-1911, Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands,various dates to 1911)

B SR 1837-1911 240101MMS.xls (as above, sorted by Mother's Maiden Surname).

M SR 1837-1911 240201.xls  (GRO England & Wales Marriages 1837 Q3 [starting 1st July] to 1911, Scotland 1855-1911, Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, various dates from start to 1911).

M SR DETAILS 240201.xls (Marriage details extracted from church etc. registers for the above-stated time periods).

D SR 1837-1911 240101.xls (GRO England & Wales Deaths 1837 Q3 [starting 1st July] to 1911, Scotland 1855-1911, with ages at death and full forenames, sorted by age and year of death

D SR 1837-1911 240101birthyr.xls (as above, sorted by calculated year of birth).

GRO REG DIST KEY 060402.xls (Key to abbreviations used in the names of registration districts).

DIVORCES 1858-1903 210313.xls (Divorces from the Matrimonial Causes list).  This is a small file containing just 9 entries.  Where possible the relevant marriages have been identified and the WFHC tree numbers provided.

N'd occs for M Details 140708.xls (List of the principal occupations that not been transcribed exactly as they stand in the official record but which have been brought into a standard form for better searching).

2.2 BIRTHS, DEATHS & MARRIAGES OUTSIDE THE BRITISH ISLES

AU BIRTHS 221021.xls (Births 1813-1911 extracted from the Australian Vital Records Index, from Official Indexes and other sources).

AU DEATHS 171101.xls (Deaths 1832-1911 plus one in 1790 extracted from Official Indexes and other sources).

AU MARRIAGES 210313.xls (Marriages 1799-1911 extracted from the Australian Vital Records Index and from Official Indexes, with WFHC tree numbers added).

NZ MARRIAGES 210313.xls (Marriages 1852-1911 extracted from the New Zealand Government’s Births, Deaths & Marriages On-line database, with WFHC tree numbers added).

M ONTARIO 210313.xls (Marriages 1862-1928, from the Archives of Ontario, Canada, relating to those born in the British Isles, with WFHC tree numbers added).

D ONTARIO 210313.xls (Death certificates 1869-1938, from the Archives of Ontario, Canada, relating to those born in the British Isles, with WFHC tree numbers added entry.

US & CANADA M REFS 221123.xls (Referencing file only for US & Canadian marriages from the trees of WFHC correspondents - all dates up to 1911).

Civil registration of births, deaths and marriages in Australia began at various different times in the individual states, namely

Australian Capital Territory (ACT): 1930

New South Wales (NSW): 1856

Northern Territory (NT): 1870

Queensland (QLD): 1856

South Australia (SA): 1842

Tasmania (TAS): 1838

Victoria (VIC): 1853

Western Australia (WA): 1841

This index of Australian marriages runs from the earliest times up to 1911.  It incorporates data taken from the Australian Vital Records Index, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, which covers New South Wales (1788–1888), Tasmania (1803–1899), Victoria (1837–1888), and Western Australia (1841–1905) only.  Although it is stated to contain about 4.5 million records of births, christenings, marriages, and deaths, it is reputedly only 70 to 80% complete.  The Tasmanian entries have ages and accurate dates.  The AVRI index was supplemented firstly by information supplied by correspondents and secondly by using the on-line records from the register offices.  For sorting purposes, the months and days missing from the data, have been entered as “mm-dd”.

Civil registration of marriages in New Zealand began in 1856.  This index of marriages is based on the New Zealand Government’s online BDM database, Historical Records section.  It includes two earlier marriages, in 1851 and 1852, which probably relate to the same event, despite the different years.  These appear in the Govt. database because it includes pre-1856 material from church records.  The index presented on this website includes some exact dates and places (some from certificates, some provided by correspondents from family or church records) and a “remarks” column in which official errors have been noted.  It is heavily referenced with WFHC reference numbers.  As with the other marriage indexes on this website, it runs up to 1911.  Later marriages, up to a limit set at 80 years before the current date, can be found in the Government database.  Historical births and deaths can also be found there.

The Ontario marriages are those of those born in England, Ireland or Scotland, from 1862 to 1928, the last date then available under the 85-year closure rule.  The practices of different counties varied considerably, so that the information supplied is far from uniform throughout the province.  While most of the details are derived from the original papers, the 3 earliest entries, which are pre-1870, depend on a transcript, which does not provide as much information as the original papers from 1870 onwards.

WFHC tree numbers have been added where findable.

The Ontario deaths are those of those born in England, Ireland or Scotland, from 1869 to 1938, the last date then available under the 75-year closure rule.  WFHC tree numbers have been added where findable.  Occ = Occupation; Inf = Informant.  In the “Cond” (Condition) column, M = married, S= single, W= Widow(er), while blanks mean that this information was not given in the certificate.

2.3 PRE-GRO MARRIAGES REFERENCING FILE

PRE-GRO M REFS 240101.xls (Referencing file for some marriages from the trees of WFHC correspondents.  It shows WFHC tree numbers against church marriages in England & Wales before 1st July 1837, when civil registration began).

2.4 PARISH REGISTER FILES

While most of these files contain details of baptisms (C), births, burials (I) and marriages (M) before 1st July 1837 when civil registration began in England & Wales, some of the baptism and all the burial files include post-1837 events, as indicated by the dates.  Many begin in 1813 when the registers were required to give more information than previously.

MARRIAGES

The WFHC transcripts are from the parish registers, i.e. the original record, except where otherwise stated.  The date range 1754-1837 shown means 25th March 1754 to 30th June 1837. “Full entry” means all the details except the number (if any) of the marriage in the register and the clergyman.

M W MIDS-SAL 1754-1837 230805.xls (Full entry, with a few exceptions, Shropshire, Staffs, Warwicks & Worcs marriages).

M W MIDS-SAL 1754-1837 230805 Spnames.xls (As above but sorted by spouse's names).

M Fleet 211231.xls (Clandestine marriages in the Fleet Prison Chapel and elsewhere in London, 1696 to Feb 1854).

BAPTISMS

C B St Mtn 1813-52 120401.xls (Full entry baptisms at Birmingham St Martin).

C Cheslyn Hay Meth 1789-1837 120401 (Precise, new full entry transcript of baptisms of Whitehouses and Broughs at the Cheslyn Hay Methodist church, which in about 1819 affiliated to the Methodist New Connexion).

C DY Non-con 1746-1837 100702.xls (37 baptisms at Dudley’s non-conformist chapels 1747-1837 compiled from the Rollason transcript); 39 rows of entry.

C DY RD 1813-61 231202.xls (Full entry baptisms at Anglican churches and non-conformist chapels 1813-1861 in Dudley Registration District, comprising Coseley [53 entries], Dudley [604], Rowley Regis [105], Sedgley [99] and Tipton [649]).

C WB 1813-61 180221.xls (Full entry baptisms at West Bromwich churches and chapels).

C WY Non-con 1866-92 231207.pdf (2 Prim. Meth & 8 Wes. Meth. full entry baptisms in Wednesbury).

C WY 1813-61 231218.xls (Full entry baptisms at Anglican churches and non-conformist chapels 1813-1861 in Wednesbury).

BURIALS

I Black Country 1813-61 221201.xls (Full entry burials 1813-61 at many churches, chapels and one cemetery, in South Staffs, North Worcs and the greater Birmingham area).  For more information, see Section 3.6 below.

I CK AREA 1761 onwds 120401.xls (Full entry burials at Cannock St Luke 1761-1876, Great Wyrley St Mark 1845-1887, Norton Canes St James 1813-1907 plus various transcripts made from the cemeteries at Cheslyn Hay and Great Wyrley up to 1996.  Cannock St Luke entries before 1813 are from Bishop’s Transcripts); 126 kB, 559 rows of entry.

DY CEMS 1887-1960 120101.xls (Burials in the Dudley, Brierley Hill, Gornal Wood, Halesowen, Lye/Wollescote

& Stourbridge cemeteries); 48kB, 183 rows of entry.

WB CEM 1863-76 230101.xls (Burials in West Bromwich Cemetery).

WB GRAVES 1884-2013 230420.xls (Graves from "Find a Grave" in West Bromwich).

BOYD’S LONDON BURIALS

This is an extraction from an index that combines Boyd’s London Burials (over 240,000), completed in 1934, and Cliff Webb’s London City Burials (over 35,000).  The latter are nearly all from printed sources and nearly all in the range 1813-1854.

Surname	Forename	Year	Age	Parish
WITEHOUSE	Thomas	1612		Deptford
WITEHOUSE	John	1749	55	Clerkenwell St James
WITEHOUSE	William	1751	42	London St Botolph without Billingsgate
WITEHOUSE	William	1752	37	Clerkenwell St James
WITEHOUSE	Benjamin	1778		London Bunhill Fields
WHITEHOUSE	Ann	1814	42	London St Mary Magd: Old Fish St
WHITEHOUSE	Ann	1817	38	London St Botolph without Billingsgate

3.  DETAILED EXPLANATIONS

3.1  USEFUL DATES FOR GRO (ENGLAND & WALES) BMD

1538	Parishes were ordered by Thomas Cromwell to record baptisms, marriages and burials.
1598	Entries in parish registers to be made in a parchment book and previous entries on sheets of paper to be copied into the book (often not done).
1754	Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act came into force on 25th March and applied to England & Wales only.  Marriages had to take place in a Church of England church, except for Jewish & Quaker marriages.  Those under 21 needed parental consent.
1783-94	Stamp Duty Act of 1783 levied a tax of 3d on baptisms, marriages and burials.  Only paupers were exempt.  Widely hated, the Act was repealed in 1794, but is believed the cause of many apparently missing or late baptisms.
1813	Church registers were required to be kept in standard format.  Address and father’s occupation were required in baptismal registers.
1835	The Marriage Act 1835 made void in law marriages between various closely related parties, which had previously been voidable (that is to say, capable of being declared void by legal action being brought), but not void, under church law.
1837	Civil registration began on 1st July.  Marriages were permitted in non-conformist churches in the presence of a Registrar.  They were recorded officially in the Registrar’s Book.  Only a few such churches kept their own register as well.  Jewish synagogues and Quaker meeting houses were exempt from the requirement and kept their own registers.
1852	GRO volume numbers for Registration Districts changed.
1866	Age at death was recorded in GRO death indexes.  In this year also, the second and subsequent forenames were replaced by an initial, a practice that lasted only for this one year, until it was revived in 1910 (see below).
1899	The 1898 Marriage Act came into force on 1st April, allowing marriages to be performed in non-conformist churches, without a registrar being present, if conducted by an “authorised person”.  Such authorised person marriages were recorded in the church’s own register.
1907	The Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act permitted a man to marry his deceased wife’s sister.
1910	From 1st July, the second and subsequent forenames were replaced by initials in the GRO birth, marriage and death indexes.
1911	From 1st July, the mother’s maiden name was recorded in the GRO birth indexes.
1912	The GRO marriage index was cross-referenced with surname of spouse.
1921	The Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act permitted a woman to marry her deceased husband’s brother.
1927	Adoption was made a legal process and registers of adopted children began on 1st January.
1927	Registration of still births became compulsory on 1st July.
1931	The Marriages (Prohibited Degrees) Relationship Act 1931 permitted marriages between uncle and niece or aunt and nephew.
2016-7	New GRO Births & Deaths index, with full forenames, births with maiden surname of mother 1st July 1837-1916 and ages at death 1st July 1837-1957

3.2  THE WFHC US & CANADIAN MARRIAGES REFERENCING FILE

This referencing file aims to list all US and Canadian marriages for which a date exists in the WFHC collection of trees.  State symbols are shown below.

USA

AL	Alabama	IN	Indiana	NC	North Carolina	SD	South Dakota
AK	Alaska	KS	Kansas	ND	North Dakota	TN	Tennessee
AR	Arkansas	KY	Kentucky	NE	Nebraska	TX	Texas
AZ	Arizona	LA	Louisiana	NH	New Hampshire	UT	Utah
CA	California	MA	Massachusetts	NJ	New Jersey	VT	Vermont
CT	Connecticut	MD	Maryland	NV	Nevada	VA	Virginia
DC	District of Columbia	ME	Maine	NY	New York	WA	Washington
DE	Delaware	MI	Michigan	OH	Ohio	WI	Wisconsin
FL	Florida	MN	Minnesota	OK	Oklahoma	WV	West Virginia
GA	Georgia	MO	Missouri	OR	Oregon	WY	Wyoming
IA	Iowa	MS	Mississippi	PA	Pennsylvania
ID	Idaho	MT	Montana	RI	Rhode Island
IL	Illinois	NE	Nebraska	SC	South Carolina

Canada:  AB = Alberta; BC = British Columbia; MB = Manitoba; NB = New Brunswick; NL = Newfoundland;

NS = Nova Scotia; NT = Northwest Territories; ON = Ontario; PEI = Prince Edward Island; QC = Quebec;

SK = Saskatchewan.

3.3  THE WFHC PRE-GRO MARRIAGES REFERENCING FILE

The term “Pre-GRO marriages” means marriages in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland that took place before civil registration began.  In other words, they are marriages that can only be found in parish registers.

This referencing file has been established solely in order to provide an additional means of referencing correspondents’ trees.  It differs from most of the other files, in that it is not a complete record of all pre-GRO marriages of Whitehouses.  It covers only those marriages which are known or believed to belong to the tree of a WFHC correspondent.

A marriage is referenced when, on the balance of probabilities, it is correct.  The more rigorous requirement of “beyond reasonable doubt” has not been applied.  The more doubtful tree numbers have a question mark (query symbol) after them.  Normally, the question mark will apply to all the tree numbers, but where one is relatively certain and the other relatively doubtful, the latter will carry the question mark and they will be a separated by a semi-colon.

3.4  THE WFHC PARISH REGISTER FILES - MARRIAGES

Whereas baptism and burial files (see below) have been established in separate files for each parish or church, West Midlands marriages have been combined into a single file that covers the whole of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.  This file corrects many errors and rectifies many omissions in the IGI and Family Search, as well as containing witness and other useful information.  Nearly all the marriages are full entry, but this is still a work in progress, so there are some details missing.

Wherever possible, the parish register (PR) has been used, otherwise a Bishop’s Transcript (BT) or an unofficial transcript (Tr).  The source is shown in the column “Sce”.  However, for some entries at Handsworth St Mary and at Rowley Regis St Giles, the Bishop’s Transcript or an unofficial transcript had to be used.  Unfortunately, I did not annotate the entries to which this applies, so, for the time being, all indicate the Parish Register.  The problem with Handsworth St Mary was a poor quality film and with Rowley Regis St Giles fire damage to the original registers.  The source “Ind” means that an index was used and it has not yet been possible for me to extract the details from the parish register.

The policy in this marriage file has been to “normalise” forenames heavily.  Thus, abbreviations such as “Thos”, “Wm” etc. have been expanded to the full name.  To make the database easier to search, spellings of forenames have also been standardised as the name considered to be in majority use and the different name actually appearing in the register shown in the Notes column.  Thus, for example, all Annes are shown as Ann, Catharines as Catherines,  Phebes as Phoebe, Rebekahs as Rebecca.  At various times after 1812, a few churches have entered large numbers of marriages as taking place with consent of parents, even, sometimes, where the parties are widower and widow.  Possibly this practice arose from a misunderstanding of official instructions.  These consents have been annotated “(fe)”, meaning “frequent entry”, to indicate that it should not be inferred that the parties are minors (under 21).

The standard marriage entry in a parish register describes the parties as bachelor and spinster of this parish.  Sometimes, the marital status is omitted.  The transcript records only departures from the standard entry, for example mention that a party is from another parish or that one is a widower or widow.  Sometimes the register does not state the condition, but this transcript assumes bachelor and spinster unless otherwise stated.  A note of caution: I have encountered several instances in which a party has been entered as a bachelor or spinster, but he or she had married previously.

“M” (Male) refers to the groom,”F” (Female) to the bride and “w” to a witness.  Where there are 3 or more witnesses, they are shown as “3w”, “4w” etc.  If a third witness has signed, this is denoted by “s” at the end of his details, as in “3w: SMITH Samuel (s)”.  A frequent witness (parish clerk, church officer etc.) is shown by “(fw)” after his forename.

The Fleet marriages file shows 30 Whitehouses in the registers of the Fleet Prison Chapel and other Chapels in London where clandestine marriages took place.  They were conducted by an ordained priest, without banns or licence, an advantage to those who wished to hide their marriage from public view.  The registers, some of which were in notebook form, were kept by the officiating priest, but many are copies.  Where the details given differ, it is difficult to know which register to believe.  This WFHC transcript shows the major variations.  Such clandestine marriages led to the 1753 Hardwicke Act banning them from 25th March 1754 and prescribing the information that had to be given in parish registers.  Although the marriages took place in London, this was not necessarily the residence of the parties.  A feature of these marriages is that many give residence information of the parties, their marital condition and the man's occupation. Chapman code abbreviations for counties have been used in this transcript and many names have been normalised.

3.5  PARISH REGISTER FILES - BAPTISMS

Forenames have been minimally “normalised” : for example “Wm” has been expanded to “William”.  Abodes have been normalised:  for example, “Darby Hand” and “Derby End” in Dudley have been converted to “Darby End”.  Mostly, occupations have also been minimally normalised in the same way as in the marriage details files.  These minor departures from the literal original have been made to help in searching.

The files are presented sorted by forename and then by OO (original order).  The original order is date order and where more than one Whitehouse baptism to the same parents has taken place on a particular day, the order in the register has been noted.  Births (b) and baptisms (c) are indexed and cross-referenced.

Dudley baptisms have been derived mainly by “trawling”, that is to say going through the registers page by page looking for Whitehouse entries.  The draft rough indexes, apparently prepared by church officials, are incomplete and so have been used only as a checking aid.  The IGI has also been used as a checking aid for baptisms.  Some of the entries for St John’s church (Kate’s Hill) have been taken from the index in the Dudley Archives search room and some from Bishop’s Transcripts (BTs).  They have been annotated accordingly.  Otherwise, the parish registers have been used.  The entries for St Andrew’s church (Netherton) and St John’s were not trawled: the Dudley Archives’ indexes were used to locate them.

The file of Dudley non-conformist baptisms is extracted from the transcript by Arthur A. Rollason, The Herald Press, Dudley 1899.  It covers Quaker baptisms at the Old Meeting House, Dudley from 1743 to 1772 and 1775 to 1837 (contains 33 Whitehouse entries from 1747 to 1771 plus one in 1791);  baptisms at the Independent or Congregational chapel in King Street from 1803-37 (contains 3 Whitehouse entries, from 1834-37); Wesleyan Methodist births & baptisms 1804-37 (no Whitehouses); Baptist births 1816-37 & deaths 1814-37 (no Whitehouses); and burials only (no baptisms) at the Methodist New Connexion chapel, Wolverhampton Street 1829-37 (contains 4 Whitehouse entries, all female, 1832-36).  The abbreviations used are , b = birth, c = baptism, i. = burial and, in a note, m. = marriage.  Whitehouses were extracted using the surname index printed in the book of the transcript and trawling the relevant pages, because the index does not state how many entries occur on any particular page.  The file is presented sorted by forename and then by OO (original order), which is the same as date order.

Tipton St Martin baptisms were provided by a kind helper, working from Bishop’s Transcripts, checked against the IGI, a trawl carried out many years ago by another kind helper and my own trawl from 1837 to 1851 in the Parish Register.  Tipton baptisms 1852 to 1861 in all Anglican churches were trawled by me in the parish register.  The period 1838-1861 for St Martin was checked against the relatively new Family Search index, which seems a good one.

West Bromwich All Saints baptisms were extracted by using the IGI as a guide, while those for other churches depend mainly on trawling the Parish Register.  There are 6 series of extracts, which can be separated by sorting by the OO reference number (1001 onwards = All Saints; 2001 onwards = Christ Church; 3001 onwards = St Peter; 9001; 4001 onwards = Holy Trinity; 5001 onwards = St James onwards; 9001 onwards = miscellaneous birth certificates).  The file is complete for all Anglican churches in West Bromwich for the period stated.  Notes have been made to show where “Lamberts End” has been adopted instead of “Lambeths End” and “Summer St” in place of “Somers Street”.  “Lyne” is an abbreviation of Lyndon, which was the centre of Old West Bromwich.  The centre of the town moved in a south westerly direction to the area around Moor Street, which was the old heath area known as “Lyng”, presumably because of heather there.  Lyng Lane still exists, running from Sams Lane northwards towards the High Street and the Metro Station.  For more information about the quaint names of the areas of West Bromwich, see the Victoria County History of Staffordshire.

3.6  PARISH REGISTER & OTHER BURIALS FILES

List of churches, chapels etc.covered in the Black Country burials index (1813-1861):

Alcester St Nich (none found)	Bromsgrove St John B	Great Barr St Mgt	Oldbury Ch Ch	Tipton St John (none found)
Aldridge St Mary (none found)	Burntwood Ch Ch (none found)	Gt Wyrley Cemetery	Oldbury Wes Meth Church St	Tipton St Mark
Alrewas All Sts	Burton-upon-Trent St Modwen	Gt Wyrley St Mark	Pedmore St Ptr	Tipton St Mtn
Amblecote Holy T	Bushbury St Mary	Hagley St Ptr (none found)	Pelsall St Michl & AA	Upper Gornal St Ptr
Armitage St John B (none found)	Cannock St Luke	Halesowen St John	Penkridge St Michl & AA	W Brom All Sts
Ashted St Jas the less	Clent St Leon (none found)	Handsworth St Jas	Penn St Bt	W Brom Ch Ch
Aston St P & P	Codsall St Nich (none found)	Handsworth St Mary	Pensnett St Mark	W Brom Holy T
Belbroughton Holy T (none found)	Coseley Ch Ch	Harborne St Ptr	Perry Barr St John (none found)	W Brom St Ptr
Bewdley Particular Baptists 1757-1836 (none found)	Coseley Old Mtg House	Heath Town Holy T (none found)	Quarry Bank Ch Ch	W Brom Wesleyan Methodist
Bewdley Presbyterian High St 1812-15 (none found)	Cradley Heath St Luke	Himley St Michl & AA (none found)	Quinton Ch Ch (none found)	Walsall St Mary RC
Bickenhill St Ptr (none found)	Cradley St Ptr	Kidderminster St Geo	Redditch St Ste	Walsall St Matt
Bilston St Leon	Darlaston St Geo	Kidderminster St Mary	Rowley Regis St Giles	Walsall St Ptr
Bilston St Mary	Darlaston St Lawr	Kings Norton St Nic	Rugeley St Augustine	Walsall Wood St John
Bilston Swan Bank Wesleyan Methodist	Droitwich St Andw (none found)	Kingswinford St Mary	Rushall St Michl	Wednesbury St Bt
Birmingham All Sts	Droitwich St Nicholas (none found)	Kinver St Ptr	Sedgley All Sts	Wednesbury St James
Birmingham St Bt	Droitwich St Peter de Witton (none found)	Langley Holy T	Shareshill St Mary (none found)	Wednesfield St Thos
Birmingham St Geo	Dudley Independent King St	Lichfield except St Michael (none found)	Sheldon St Giles	Willenhall St Giles
Birmingham St Mary	Dudley Methodist Wolverhampton St	Lichfield St Michl	Shenstone St John B (none found)	Wollaston St Jas (none found)
Birmingham St Mtn	Dudley St Andw	Lower Gornal St Jas	Short Heath Holy T	Wolverhampton St Geo
Birmingham St Paul	Dudley St Edmd	Lye Ch Ch (none found)	Smethwick Holy T	Wolverhampton St John
Birmingham St Phil	Dudley St Jas	Martley St Ptr 1813-37 only (none found)	Smethwick Old Church	Wolverhampton St Mary
Birmingham St Thos	Dudley St John	Moseley St Mary (none found)	Smethwick St Matt	Wolverhampton St Ptr
Bloxwich All Sts	Dudley St Thos	Moxley All Sts	Solihull St Alphege	Wombourn St Bendict Biscop
Bordesley Holy T	Enville St Mary	Northfield St Laurence	Stonnall St Ptr	Wordsley Holy T
Brewood St Mary	Essington St John (none found)	Norton Canes St Jas	Tamworth St Editha	Yardley St Edburgha (none found)
Brierley Hill St Michl	Fazeley St Paul (none found)	Ogley Hay St Jas (none found)	Tardebigg St Bt
Brockmoor St John	Frankley St Leon	Old Swinford St Mary	Tettenhall Regis St Michael & AA

The Black Country burials file covers Whitehouse burials in the churches tabulated, from 1813 or the start of the burials register, if later, until the end of 1861 (except in a few instances, as noted).  Many churches are not listed here because they did not have a burial ground before 1862.  Coverage of non-Anglican churches is highly incomplete and not all the Anglican churches are covered at present.  Some of the churches covered are not indexed in any online form and some not at all.  Sources used comprise parish registers (PR), other church registers (Reg), Bishop's Transcripts (BT), (Ts of BT), necessitated by the fire damage at Rowley Regis St Giles, other transcripts (Ts) and General Register Office Certificates (GRO), most of which are for Sarah Whitehouses.  The Coseley Old Meeting House entries include extracted burial forms covering the period of civil registration as far as 1861, taken from a visit to the chapel many years ago by the late Gerald Moorman (GM).  Bilston entries for 1832 have been supplemented from the cholera list for that parish. 

The forenames have been normalised and the actual names shown inserted in square brackets in the Notes column.  Other notes and comments not in the original document are also shown, mostly in square brackets.

The Cannock area burials file which covers a different date range has been retained (see above for link).

DUDLEY AREA CEMETERIES

Whitehouse burials have been extracted from the Dudley Council’s online index.  It covers 6 cemeteries for the period 1887 to 1960, now under the control of Dudley Council.  The Halesowen cemetery was the first of these to open, in 1859, but no Whitehouse burial took place there until 1887.  In 1879, cemeteries were opened at Stourbridge and at Lye, in 1904 at Dudley (on the Stourbridge Road) and in 1926 at Brierley Hill.  The other cemetery covered is at Gornal Wood.  Two still births have been excluded.  The file is arranged in a similar manner to the GRO Deaths one, by forename of the Whitehouse deceased and then by calculated birth year.  The far left column, headed “OO” (Original Order) can be used to re-sort the burials into date order.  If searching yourself in the Dudley Council’s index, note that you have an option to select a range of  5 years.  Confusingly, this does not mean up to five years either side of the date entered, but up to five years after the date entered.

WEST BROMWICH CEMETERY

This is a file of unknown origin, probably emanating from a kind correspondent, with entries from 1863-76

WEST BROMWICH GRAVES

This file indexes graves in the West Bromwich (Heath Lane) cemetery and the All Saints churchyard.  It has been extracted from "Find a Grave" and some improvements made. All but four entries relate to deaths from 1884 to 2013.  The four outliers are Martha 1740, Daniel 1752, Daniel 1806 & Maria 1839.  The index provides family groupings and notes.  Where a date of birth is stated to be unknown, the new GRO births index, which gives ages at death, has been used to supply it.  In one instance, a forename represented only by an initial has been supplied by the same means.