Genealogy
Transcription of Parish Registers
The Lighthorne parish registers are stored at the Warwick County Record Office (WCRO) under reference DR0018/1 – DR0018/6. They start from 1538 and are written in secretary script, initially in Latin, then in the 17th century partly in a mixture of English and Latin, eventually totally in English. The currently available online transcriptions of these records vary in their accuracy and Colin Such has completed transcribing and indexing the entries of the first volume, DR0018/1, from 1538 to 1715.
To view the 1538-1715 transcriptions please click on this link LH263(E). To view the 1538-1715 names index please click on this link LH264(E).
To view the transcription and index of the second volume of the register (DR0018/2), covering baptisms 1715-35, marriages 1715-33 and burials 1678-1735 click LH308(E).
We are grateful to the Record Office for permission to publish this work.
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Graveyard Survey
Surveys of the gravestone inscriptions in St. Laurence’s Church graveyard were conducted in the early 20th century by the Rev. Harvey Bloom and in 1985 a survey of the gravestone inscriptions and the memorial inscriptions within the church was published by the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry (LH150). In 1999 a GPS survey of the graves in the churchyard was undertaken by Butler Sherborn of Burford, but this lacks accuracy.
Between 2011 and 2014 a number of members of the society revealed the gravestones which had been laid horizontal in the early 1950s and had subsequently become covered by moss and earth. They triangulated the graveyard and plotted the positions of the graves on a 1:100 plan. They recorded the inscriptions and cross-checked them with the earlier surveys. In 2023 the complete survey results were reviewed and cross-checked with new information. A few anomalies remain and several of the gravestones located in the earlier surveys were not found. This is a link to the table on which the information is recorded LH148(E). The list of graves is alphabetical.
The society archive contains photographs of some of the gravestones which were laid horizontal and have now been uncovered.
If you wish to visit the graveyard to see a grave please use the contact form to give us the reference number and we will try to help you with the location.
