Birkenhead, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
BIRKENHEAD, is a seaport town, a market town, and a township, and seven chapelries, in the district of Wirral, Cheshire. The town stands on the Mersey, opposite Liverpool, about a mile by water W of Liverpool, and 14 3/4 miles by railway NNW of Chester. It comprises the ancient extra parochial district or chapelry of Birkenhead, the former township of Claughton in Bidstone, and part of that of Oxton in Woodchurch. They have been incorporated with the township of Birkenhead. The place was anciently called Bircheved, Birkete, Birket-wood, and Birkenhedde.

There are upward of thirty non-established places of worship (including Claughton and Oxton). There are two Roman Catholic churches. There is also a Mariners' church. The chapelries are St. Mary which was formed out of Bidstone parish; St. James, Trinity, was constituted in 1841, St. Anne, St. John, were formed out of St. Mary; and St. Paul was formed out of Bibington. Trinity; St. Anne, in 1847.

Church Records
Birkenhead parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.

Non-Conformist Records:

Here is a list of Church records on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Church records for Oxton Catholic Church, 1909-1971 Cheshire Record Office call no.: ERC 29/5477/1-2.

Church records for the Brunswick Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Birkenhead, 1830-1958

Church records for the Claughton Road United Methodist Chapel, Birkenhead, 1864-1938 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 132/1/1-3, EMS 132/7/1-2.

Church records for the Grange Road Primitive Methodist Chapel, Birkenhead, 1886-1958

Brunswick Chapel Wesleyan Methodist Church records, 1830-1837 Microfilm of original records at the Public Record Office, London.

Palm Grove Chapel Oxton, Cheshire Wesleyan Methodist Church records, 1858-1887 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 139/13

Church records Hind Street Chapel Birkenhead, Cheshire Weslayan, 1873-1965

Church records Laird Street Chapel Weslayan, 1874-1941 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 136/1

Church records Lowe Street Chapel Birkenhead Wesleyan Methodist, 1879-1957 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 137/1

Church records Mount Tabor Chapel Birkenhead Primitive Methodist, 1896-1945 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 138/1a

Church records St. Andrew's Church Birkenhead, Presbyterian, 1900-1943 Microfilm of original records at the Presbyterian Historical Society, London.

Church records Presbyterian Church Birkenhead, Cheshire, 1929-1942 Microfilm of original records at the Presbyterian Historical Society, London

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Birkenhead Branch Record of members, ca. 1852-1945 Microfilm of originals in the LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage and death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 *  Wirral (1837–61)
 * Birkenhead (1861–1998)
 * Wirral (post 1998)

Poor Law Unions

 * Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire (1836–61)
 * Birkenhead Poor Law Union, Cheshire (1861–1930).

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

Websites
Birkenhead on GENUKI