Show parish registers I 1 was once being shown round a village church in the eastern counties and was solemnly informed by tho the somewhat garrulous parish clerk that the registers went back to tho the time of william the conqueror says J F wll wil liams in the treasury lest the same startling opinion may be held by others let me hasten to say that parish registers were unknown in england before the end of henry reign and happy is that parish which still possesses esses its records even from that jato date for our earlier registers have certainly had bad a very checkered career and when we read the story of the treatment which has been meted out to them thain during the three or four con cen of their existence we can only wonder that they exist in such numbers as quey luey do |