Church Registers should be handed over once they are full. Some churches which don't have many burials, christenings or weddings may take a long time to fill up registers, so retain them for many years. They also only have to hand them over if they don't have suitable facilities for storing them themselves, which is the case with most churches which cannot afford the fireproof and temperature/humidity controlled environments that are needed. As well as registers for the occasional offices, churches also have service registers, where funeral services which may take place before burial or cremation at non-church facilities will be recorded. Most churches will put the name of the person whose funeral it is in the margin of the register, so there might be a record here, but it would be very hard to search. Similarly, many churchyards which are closed for burials still are open for the burial of ashes, and will have some sort of register of these occasions. But again, hard to search. HTH Anne On 13 Aug 2013, at 17:12, Brad Rogers wrote: > On Tue, 13 Aug 2013 15:38:51 +0100 > Connie <connie.sparrer@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hello Connie, > >> I was told all completed registers and those over 100 years are >> required to be deposited in the Diocesan Record Office which is >> usually, but not always, the county record office. The archivist who >> told me that wasn't telling the truth then? > > Not the whole truth. What you were told is what *should* happen. Many > registers have simply not been surrendered for archival. There's > little, if anything, the relevant Record Office can do to force the > surrender of the required registers.