I noted, as I went on, the time occupied in each of these operations. It was as follows:—
| 1. The first transcripts on slips, with addition of statistical tables— | ||||||||||
| 551/2 hours. | |||||||||
| 2. Collecting and filing alphabetically | 23 ---- | |||||||||
| 3. Sorting in strict alphabetical order | 131/4 ---- | |||||||||
| 4. Transcribing into book | 911/2 ---- | |||||||||
| 5. Copying statistical tables into book | 5 ---- | |||||||||
| Transcripts of miscellaneous entries, lists of vicars, &c. &c. | 7 ---- | |||||||||
| Total | 1951/4 hours. | |||||||||
My registers begin in the year 1558, and the present population of the parish is about 420, so that you have here an account of the labour necessary to complete an alphabetical transcript of the register of a rural parish of that extent in population.
I send you the result as a first step to a work of great national importance, and of inestimable value with relation to family descent, title to property long in abeyance, &c. &c. As to statistics, I doubt whether any data worthy of consideration can be obtained from these sources, owing to the constant irregularities which occur in keeping the registers.
No man, much less the minister of a parish, who has abundant calls upon his time, can be expected to sit down to the task of transcribing his registers through many consecutive hours; but there are few who could not give occasionally one or two hours to the work. In this way I effected my transcripts; the work of 195 hours being distributed through nearly five months—no great labour after all.
On an average, twelve words, with the figures, may be calculated for each entry, which will give for this parish about 500 folios. Each entry having been transcribed twice, we may call it, at a rough calculation, 1000 folios written out ready for printing.
If the authorities at the Registrar-General's office would give their attention to it, they must have there abundant data on which to form calculations as to the probable cost of the undertaking And I cannot help thinking that, setting aside printing as an after consideration, alphabetical transcripts, at least, might be obtained of all the parochial registers in the kingdom, and deposited in that office, at no insurmountable expense; and if the cost appear too heavy, the accomplishment of the work might be distributed through a given number of years; say ten, or even twenty.
Parliament might, perhaps, be induced to vote an annual grant for so important a work till it was accomplished; albeit, when we think of their niggardly denial of any thing to the printing, or even the conservation of the public records, sanguine hopes from that quarter can hardly be indulged.
To insure correctness, without which the scheme would be utterly valueless, I would propose that a certain number of competent transcribers be appointed for each county, either at a given salary, or at a remuneration of so much per entry, to copy the registers of those parishes the ministers of which are unwilling to do it, or feel themselves unequal to the task. The option, however, should always, in the first instance, be given to the minister, as the natural custos of the registers, and as one, from local knowledge, likely to do the work correctly. To each county there should also be appointed one or more competent persons as collators, to correct the errors of the transcribers.
I throw out these rough hints in the hope that some of your correspondents will furnish their ideas on the subject, till we at last arrive at a fully practicable plan of carrying out Mr. Wyatt Edgell's suggestions, and, at all events, obtain transcripts, if not printed copies, of every register in the kingdom.