This is the main parish registers page. The following article was submitted by Christine Hasman, from Winthorpe. She can be contacted through the .

After a discussion with David Milner in November 2010, it was agreed that I would take on the task of collecting all the completed parish registers from the churches in the East Trent Group and then arrange for them to be delivered to the Diocesan Records Office at the Nottinghamshire Archives.

Being a keen genealogist and well aware of the importance of parish registers for family history research, I decided to put my interest in photography to good use, and produce digital images of each page in every register. The images would be put on CDs and given back to the church wardens as a substitute for the original registers.

Setting up my home "studio" was quite a steep learning curve. First of all, I wanted to use natural light, so I spread out a white sheet on the floor near a large window and draped it up the front of a dining chair so that it would act as a reflector as well as a background. Next I had to set up the camera on its tripod in such a way that the lens would point downwards, and also make sure that the camera was level. In order to get the whole page in focus, I needed to increase the depth of field and settled on F20. This resulted in long exposure times - sometimes more than 1 second - and so to avoid camera shake I used a cordless infra red shutter release.

That took care of the camera technicalities; I then needed to work out how to arrange each register on the sheet. One thing that became clear early on was that sometimes the books wouldn't lie flat by themselves. They needed to be propped up slightly underneath the cover, and I had to find something other than my fingers to hold the pages down. After a rummage around in my old knitting bag I found just the thing - a large, blunt ended knitting needle which actually looks quite professional! After the photos were taken, more than 2300 shutter clicks later, the images were post-processed individually to brighten them using Corel Paint Shop Pro.

Here's an example of an entry from one of the Langford registers, showing the baptism of Charles Slingsby Duncombe. Although the Duncombe family (later Peirce-Duncombe) lived at Winthorpe Hall, there are older links to Langford as Slingsby Duncombe was the Lord of the Manor and has a monument in Langford church.

Before putting the camera away for its well-earned rest, I photographed a selection of the registers to make an image for the CD labels. With a bit of adjustment and the addition of appropriate text, I was ready to create the CDs, in what rapidly became a bit of a production line - burn the data on the CD using the PC, then pop the (inkjet printable) CD in the printer to add the label, and repeat 21 times!

With the CDs created, the only thing left was to carefully bundle up all 31 registers and arrange for the archivists to come and collect them, which they duly did, in two batches (here is the first batch below).

The parish registers for the East Trent Group held at the Nottinghamshire Archives are now as follows:

Besthorpe, Holy Trinity: Baptisms, 1847 - 2002; Burials, 1847 - 2009

Girton, St Cecilia: Baptisms, 1680 - 2005; Marriages, 1680 - 1996; Burials, 1680 - 2010

Harby, All Saints: Baptisms, 1867 - 2005; Marriages, 1867 - 2008; Burials, 1868 - 1992

Holme, St Giles: Baptisms, 1711 - 2010; Marriages, 1711 - 2007; Burials, 1711 - 1989

Langford, St Bartholomew: Baptisms, 1688 - 2010; Marriages, 1703 - 1959; Burials, 1701 - 1992

North Clifton, St George: Baptisms, 1614 - 2009; Marriages, 1654 - 1998; Burials, 1539 - 1992

North Collingham, All Saints: Baptisms, 1558 - 2004; Marriages, 1571 - 1986; Burials, 1558 - 2003

South Collingham, St John the Baptist: Baptisms, 1558 - 1937; Marriages, 1558 - 2000; Burials, 1558 - 1905

South Scarle, St Helena: Baptisms, 1680 - 1939; Marriages, 1685 - 1997; Burials, 1684 - 1985

Thorney, St Helen: Baptisms, 1562 - 1898; Marriages, 1562 - 1996; Burials, 1562 - 1992

Winthorpe, All Saints: Baptisms, 1687 - 1944; Marriages, 1687 - 2004; Burials, 1687 - 1992