Middleton, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Middleton, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

View a List of Chapelries within Middleton Parish.

Parish History
MIDDLETON St. Leonard, a market-town and a parish, in the hundred of Salford, S. division of Lancashire; containing, with the chapelries of Ainsworth and Ashworth, and the townships of Birtle cum Bamford, Hopwood, Great Lever, Pilsworth, and Thornham, is 6 miles north by northeast from Manchester.

At Ainsworth, Ashworth, Birch, and Birtle Thornham, are separate incumbencies [chapels of ease with parish registers--all of which lay within the boundary of St Leonard Middleton Parish]. There are places of worship for Independents, Primitive Methodists, Wesleyans, the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, and Swedenborgians.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two outstanding Internet sites with indexes to vital births, marriages and deaths for Lancashire and England in general:


 * 1) FreeBMD - from 1837 to 1940; later (part.) with free B M Ds for the county and country
 * 2) Lancashire BMD - Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths; and provides the parish or place of marriages

Church records
Online Records
 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * 1603 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index and images

Middleton St Leonard's parish registers and those registers of many of its smaller chapelries lying within its boundaries have been transcribed and are displayed online at the web sites listed below and for the following ranges of years:

Middleton parish registers may be found at the Manchester Archives and Local Studies, Central Library, St Peter's Square, Manchester M2 5PD.

Bishop's transcripts for Middleton, 1609-1874 Microreproduction of original manuscripts housed at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Lancashire Record Office: ref. DRM/2/221-230

Here's some of the microfilm copies of Middleton St Leonard's Parish available at The Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.. These can be circulated to any one of its satellite FamilySearch Centers worldwide

Genealogy
Todd, Andrew: Researching Handloom Weavers from Parish Registers. Booth and Dakin of Prestwich and Middleton. History and family tree of John Dakin and Elizabeth, 2) John and Mary Mally also Booth, dating from 1776-1880. Other surnames are Brooks, Fitlon, Holt, Joynson, Smethhurst, and Jackson. Article in The Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Soc. vol. 10. no.1. pages 36-41 FHL Ref. 942.72 B2r

Poor Law Unions
Oldham Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Lancashire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Taxation

 * 1541 - (p. 143)
 * 1622 - (p. 158)
 * 1665-1667 - Lancashire Hearth Tax: Lonsdale Hundred, Middleton. E 179/132/352, The National Archives. Microfilm:.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Here are some major websites affecting Lanacashire online family history research:

Civil Registration:


 * 1) FreeBMD - from 1837 to 1940; later (part.) with free B M Ds for the county and country
 * 2) Lancashire BMD - Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths; and provides the parish or place of marriages

Church Records:


 * FamilySearch.org
 * Lancashire Online Parish Clerk
 * findmypast
 * LancashireBMD
 * Ancestry.co.uk
 * FreeReg

British History Online Middleton

Pilsworth