America's Interest in English Parish Registers.

The article discusses the historical value of registers for parishes in England. The author notes efforts by the Parish Register Society to preserve parish records and comments on their use in genealogical research. He discusses his examination of the register of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Widford, England and notes its historical significance due to the baptism of missionary John Eliot there. The register of the Nazing Vicarage in Waltham Cross, England offers information on the ancestors of author Oliver Wendell Holmes, historian George Bancroft, and former American Antiquarian Society (AAS) vice-president William Paine. The author suggests that parish records have particular value to American historians.