Thursday 13 September 2012

Parish Clerks' Memorandum Books, St Botolph Aldgate, 1583-1625

We're pleased to announce that, with the help of funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the raw transcripts of the Parish Clerks' Memorandum Books have now been fully uploaded onto ReScript.

These books comprise a journal of events in the parish of St Botolph Aldgate in the period 1583-1625, as recorded by the parish clerks. Significantly wider in scope than the parish registers, these sources offer a uniquely rich and detailed view into the social and economic lives of the parishioners.

The project will now begin looking for editorial input to help mark up the texts which it is envisaged will offer greater support for deeper analysis of trends. Since the books record the rights of passage of the parish, they offer the opportunity to follow the lives of individuals: their birth, marriage, baptism of their children and their death may all be recorded within the Memorandum Books.

If you are interested in volunteering to mark up these early modern texts, please contact us through the British History Online contact form, using the subject line 'PCM contributor'.