From: Roger Gill <roger.d.gill@btinternet.com> > A search on Google reveals the following as part of the > Leicestershire Resources site: > http://www.mdlp.co.uk/resources/glossary.htm > > I had the same issue at Elland which, with Stainland, is in the > ancient parish of Halifax. The Parish church in Halifax is classed > as a Minster, which, fits with the description below, taken from > that website. I believe both terms refer to the same > establishment.< .....snip history..... Since the Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Halifax, was only designated as a Minster in 2009, the ancient terms to which you refer would hardly seem to apply. Here's what the National Index of Parish Registers Volume 11 Part 3 Yorkshire West Riding (published by the SoG) has to say about Stainland..... "HALIFAX St Andrew, Stainland. Township of Stainland in Halifax. From 1724 formed part of Elland. Church erected 1754-5 as nonconformist chapel; became C of E 1840. Separate parish 1843 from Elland. [Then follows a list of where the registers are but they only appear to date from 1782] "HALIFAX St Mary Magdalene, Outlane, Stainland. Daughter church of Stainland St Andrew." Under Elland, the NIPR explains that the parish of St Mary with St Michael, Elland, was created in 1724 from the chapelries of Elland and Rastrick in Halifax "and various townships including Barkisland, Elland-with-Greetland, Stainland and Fixby". Elland also had another church, all Saints, a daughter church of St Mary. I should perhaps explain that Halifax is one of the most difficult places to research in because it was once the largest parish in England, extending from the outskirts of Bradford to the Lancashire border at Todmorden, with no fewer than 23 townships, virtually all with their own daughter churches or chapelries. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE