The Parish Registers of England & Wales.
Prior to 1837 the most important source in tracing our Ackerman ancestors are the Parish Registers.

Strictly speaking the term "Parish Register" refers to the records of the Anglican Church, (The Church of England). However, nowadays it is taken to mean all church records including the Nonconformist's.

The keeping of the records began in 1538, when Thomas Cromwell, Chief Minister to Henry VIII ordered the clergy to keep a record of all the Baptisms, Marriages and Burials that took place in their Parish. Many of the clergy resented becoming unpaid civil servants and did not comply, but in 1598 Queen Elizabeth issued an injunction which reinforced the original instruction, and from that date all Parish's have kept permanent records.

Unfortunately not all the records have survived. Neglect, damp, carelessness, fire, and theft have all taken their toll, and many were destroyed during the English Civil War. Nonetheless a surprisingly high proportion have survived, although some of the early ones are now difficult to decipher.

Today very few old registers remain in the care of the parish. Almost without exception they have been deposited in the County Record Offices.
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The Transcriptions.
Transcribing from the Registers is not always easy due to the poor quality of the original, and inevitably, being only human, mistakes can and do occur. Accuracy is NOT guaranteed and I'm not responsible for any errors that may occur. You are urged, wherever possible, to check any information that may be relevant to your research with the original source. Often there will be more information in the original entry than is included here.

For many entries I do not have the details of the Church or Chapel in which the event took place, so in these instances I have only included the name of the Town or Village.

For both practical and legal reasons I have drawn the line at 1900. There is a wealth of information after that date but I feel that most people have a good idea of their family in the past 100 years. The only exception is the GRO indexes, which I have included up to 1925.
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Abbreviations.
In order to display a great variety of information within a set format some abbreviations have been used. Most are easily recognised but, in case of confusion, here is a full list:

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Abbreviation	Meaning		Abbreviation	Meaning
bach	bachelor		otp	of this parish
Cond	Condition		Res	Residence
d.of	daughter of		s.of	son of
DoB	Date of birth		snr	senior
DoD	Date of death		spin	spinster
FoB	Father of the bride		w.of	wife of
FoG	Father of the groom		wdr	widower
Mmn	Mother's maiden name		wid	widow
Occ	Occupation		wid.of	widow of
			wpc	with parents consent

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I have not altered any spelling. Alis, Joane and Steyven remain as they are written. I have not "modernized them" to Alice, Joan and Stephen.
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The Surname.
Our experience has shown that the spelling of the surname varies considerably, and often within the same family.

The actual spelling in the register seems to depend upon the whim of the minister. Dialect, intonation and even the spelling ability of the minister all play a part. And if the minister changes, or the family moves to a new parish, it often results in a change of spelling.

The possibility of your ancestors surname changing should always be borne in mind.

It was not until the late nineteenth century when education became compulsory that some kind of real stability came to the spelling of surnames and they became established in the form we know them today.
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Nonconformists.
Whatever their religious persuasion, it is most probable that your ancestors will appear at some time in the Anglican registers, and the further back in time you go the more likely this will be. Even the most ardent Nonconformist family will often be found in the Registers, especially before 1830. From this date back to 1752 Nonconformist marriages were not legal, and this often forced couples to marry in the Anglican Church.

From the information I have it is possible to deduce that the "Ackermans" originated in South Dorset, mainly in the Bridport area. Nonconformisim was particularly strong in the South West of England and therefore much of the information on the Ackerman family will be in the registers of the Nonconformist chapels. At the moment, with a few exceptions, these have not been transcribed.
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Dates - Old Style & New Style.
On the 13th September 1752 England and Wales changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian. This brought England & Wales into line with Scotland and the rest of Europe.

Before 1752, when the Julian calendar (Old Style) was in use, the year began on the 25th March and ended on the 24th March, so April was the 1st. month of the year and March was the 12th, or last month of the year.

With the introduction of the Gregorian calendar (New Style) the start of the year was changed to the 1st January and the end to the 31 December.

Thus any date from the 1st January to the 24th March in the "Old Style" calendar will be 1 year different in the new calendar. For example, '1st January 1748' in the "Old style" would be '1st January 1749' in the "New Style".

Failure to understand this can cause confusion to family historians. It may appear that a child born in December was baptized in January of the same year, when in fact this is not the case.

To overcome this confusion I have followed the convention of showing both dates. Dates for the months of January, February and March prior to 1752 show both "Old Style" and "New Style" years.
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