Bedford Leigh, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Bedford Leigh, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: chapelry register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Chapelry History
BEDFORD, a district chapelry, in the parish and union of Leigh, hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster, ½ a mile (E. S. E.) from Leigh. It lies on the road from Leigh to Warrington. The church, dedicated to St. Thomas, was erected in 1840 is a neat structure of brick, with a tower. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and Roman Catholics.

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.


 * Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD
 * Lancashire Online Parish Clerks

Church records

 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * 1603 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index and images

Bedford chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Leigh to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:


 * AC = Ancestry.co.uk (£)
 * FMP = findmypast (£)
 * FREG = FreeReg
 * FS  = FamilySearch.org
 * LBMD = LancashireBMD.org.uk
 * LOPC = Lancashire Online Parish Clerk

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Bedford and comprising the whole ancient parish of Leigh to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the LEIGH PARISH page.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions

 * Leigh, Lancashire 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.

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
Bedford on GENUKI