Tracing your family history?
Church Records
Records of Marriages, Burials and Baptisms (not births) have been made by all churches, for a very long time.
However, such essential records are best kept in proper archive facilities instead of in old buildings, so they are periodically transferred to safer hands, in the relevant Archiving offices.
In the case of St Helens at Trowell, the Church Parish Records were archived a few years ago, and are now held in the Nottinghamshire Archives by Notts County Council.
The recent burial registers are still held by the Church - this covers burials from about 1918 to the current date, although we have collected some earlier information by looking at gravestones. All previous registers have gone into the archives. The Notts Archive Office has Trowell's burial records up to 1918.
The most recent records from here are not available on the web because they go right up to the present week so that there are confidentiality issues. There is however a Portable Document Format (PDF) file of the earlier records that we have that may be useful to you.
In order to reliably trace the older records, the best route would be to visit the Nottinghamshire Archives at Notts County Council. The offices are actually in the City Centre, and you can get full details from the 'Links' page on our web site.
If the information you are looking for isnt in there, then it could be in the archive of the historic Archdeaconry of Nottingham, at Nottingham University. You can get to that office through the web and there are full details from the 'Links' page on our web site.
The area immediately around the Church building, up to the hedge in the church yard is what is known in English law as a 'closed burial ground'. This means that no more full burials can happen there, and that it is maintained by the district council not the Church. The church keeps no burial records for this area, except for cremated ashes in the garden of rest.
We also have links at the left, for the Church buildings history, and full lists of Rectors and Vicars who have worked at the churches.
We do hope you find something of use to you - Ed.