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Church of England and nonconformist records

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The Borthwick Institute was founded in 1953 to house the huge York Diocesan Archive – the archive of the Archbishop of York – which dates from the medieval period to the present and includes a vast probate archive from 1316 to 1858. We also hold the Church Commissioners' records of estates taken over from the Archbishop.

Other Church of England archives include parish records for York archdeaconry, and the records of two Anglican religious communities: the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, and the Society of the Sacred Mission.

Nonconformist records include Methodist records for the York Circuit and records relating to the Unitarian, Congregational, United Reformed and Catholic Apostolic churches.

You can find digitised copies of our entries for baptism, banns, marriages and burials online at www.findmypast.co.uk. In August 2022, we also launched our parish registers for the Archdeaconry of York (City of York parishes and about 20 miles around) on www.ancestry.co.uk/.