Dewsbury, Yorkshire Genealogy

Guide to Dewsbury, Yorkshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
DEWSBURY (All Saints), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, partly in the wapentake of Morley, but chiefly in the Lower division of that of Agbrigg, W. riding of York; comprising the townships of Dewsbury, Ossett with Gawthorpe, and Soothill, and the chapelry of Hartshead with Clifton; the whole containing 23,806 inhabitants, of whom 10,600 are in the township of Dewsbury, 34 miles (S. W.) from York, and 188 (N. N. W.) from London. In the town are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive Methodists, Methodists of the New Connexion, and Wesleyans.

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes. For historical information, see these sources:


 * the GENUKI page for Dewsbury.
 * the entry for Dewsbury from Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) found at 'British History Online.'
 * the entry for Dewsbury from Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) found at 'Vision of Britain.'

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - West Riding of Yorkshire ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Yorkshire ($)
 * 1611-1861 Archdeaconry of Richmond, England, Church of England Marriage Bonds, 1611-1861 at Ancestry – index & images ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images

Cemeteries
Transcripts of monumental inscriptions for Dewsbury may be found at the West Yorkshire Archives, Kirklees Branch, at the Central Library, Huddersfield.

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has a number of transcripts of monumental inscriptions for, which are available on microfilm through family history centers.

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

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