Wistaston, Cheshire Genealogy

England Cheshire  Wistaston

Parish History
Wistaston, Saint Mary is an Ancient Parish in Cheshire.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Wistaston is in the village of Wistaston, Cheshire, England. The church is a Grade II listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Nantwich.

It is believed that there has been a church or chapel on or near the present site for nearly 700 years. The first record of a rector goes back to 1379. The first church on the site would have been a wooden building. The existing records start in 1572. In 1827 the decision was taken that "due to decay it [the church] was unsuitable for public worship". The present church was built in 1827–28 to a design by George Latham. The chancel was lengthened and a transept was added in 1884. Further alterations were made in 1905.

In the Domesday Survey of 1086, the area was called Wistanestune and was a going concern having a population of 25 to 30 people, valuable woodland and arable land, and deer roaming about. It had been worth 30 shillings, but after William the Conqueror's devastation of Cheshire, it was worth just ten shillings in 1086. It was one of several local villages with the suffix ‘tune’ or ‘ton’ - meaning a ‘farmstead’.

Wistaston is a civil parish and village in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, in north-west England. It is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Crewe town centre and 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Nantwich town centre.

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.

Registration Districts

 * Nantwich (1837–1937)
 * Crewe (1937–74)
 * Congleton and Crewe (1974–88)
 * South Cheshire (1988–98)
 * Cheshire Central (post 1998)The post 2009 reorganisation of civil registration can be found online at Cheshire BMD

Church records
To find the names of the neighbouring 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.

Parish registers for Wistaston, 1572-1956 Cheshire Record Office call number: P74/1/1-4, P74/2/1-2, P74/3/1-4, P74/4, P74/5/1-2, P74/2985/1/2. Records may be found online at at FamilySearch Historical Records.

Bishop's transcripts Wistaston, 1593-1882 Records are not filmed in strict chronological order. Some intermittent years are missing.Cheshire Record Office number: EDB/224 Records may be found at FamilySearch Historical Records.

Wistaston- St Mary Baptisms-1572-1936- MFPR 680 Burials-1572-1945- MFPR 680 Marriages-1572-1929- MFPR 680

For original registers of above please enquire at Cheshire Record Office. The Manchester Room and Greater Manchester County Record Office Email: archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.ukThe Manchester Room@City Library (Local Studies)

Non-Conformist Churches
Wistaston, Methodist Chapel. Built in 1945, rebuilt in 1967.

Poor Law Unions
Nantwich Poor Law Union

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

See also England Cheshire Probate Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)

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