England, Manchester, Miscellaneous Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
This collection contains records for the years 1700-1916

This collection contains indexes of miscellaneous records acquired from the Manchester Central Library. The records include Apprenticeships, School Admissions, Prison Registers, and Workhouse Registers. The indexes and images are provided in cooperation with Find My Past.

Record Content
Apprenticeships may contain the following information:


 * Full Name
 * Age
 * Date of birth
 * Name of master
 * Place of business
 * Master’s Occupation

School admissions may contain the following information:


 * Date of admission
 * Name of child
 * Date of birth
 * Name of parents or guardians
 * Address
 * Name of previous school
 * Date of withdrawal
 * Name of school sent to following withdrawal

Prison registers may contain the following information:


 * Name of prisoner
 * Crime committed
 * Date of crime
 * Summary of conviction
 * Date and place of birth
 * Physical description

Workhouse registers may contain the following information:


 * Name
 * Date of birth
 * Admission date
 * Discharge or death date

See the Related Websites portion of this article to see more information that can be found on prison and workhouse registers.

How to Use the Record
To begin your search, it would be helpful if you knew the following information:


 * Name of ancestor
 * Approximate year and place of birth

Search the Collection
To search by index: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the wiki page [FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks].

Using the Information
When you have found the record that you are looking for, the following will help you in your research:


 * Use the age to calculate the year of birth.
 * Use the date of birth to search for a birth or baptism record.
 * Use the names of the parents on a school admissions record to search for a marriage record.
 * If your ancestor was married, search for a marriage record using their first name and surname, along with the names of parents.
 * Use the residence (or last residence) to search for your ancestor in a census.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.
 * Check for variant spellings of the names.
 * Titles may be clues to property ownership, occupations, rank, or status within the community.
 * Continue to search the index and records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have served in the same workhouse.
 * Be aware that, as with any index, transcription errors may occur.
 * Search the records of nearby localities.

Related Websites

 * Prison Registers
 * Workhouse Registers
 * England and Wales History Links
 * England and Wales Historic Maps

Related Wiki Articles

 * England Miscellaneous Workhouse Records (National Institute)
 * London Prisons
 * England Schools
 * England

Citations for This Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):