York Minster, Yorkshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
York Cathedral is the seat of the Diocese of York. It is located in the county of Yorkshire.

YORK, a city and county of itself, having exclusive jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the East Riding of York, of which it is the capital, 193 miles NNW from London; containing 28,842 inhabitants [as of 1848]. This link provides a listing of Parishes in the city.

York Cathedral, or otherwise known as York Minster, from ancient times (1136 A.D.) is known as St Peter with registers that commence from 1634-onward. Within the city proper is also included the Ainsty (which see under York Ainsty), a cluster of parishes which were annexed to and became part of the Minster or city--and all stood within St Peter's ancient parish boundaries. Here are the following ecclesiastical parishes and chapels which comprise the Minster by about 1870:


 * All Saints, North-Street - 1578
 * All Saints, Pavement - 1554 - united with St Peter the Little 1586
 * All Saints in Peasholm - demolished in 1586
 * Holy Trinity, or Christ-church, King's-ct - 1616
 * Holy Trinity, Micklegate - 1586
 * Holy Trinity, Goodramgate - 1573
 * St. Andrew - demolished in 1586; see also St Saviour
 * St. Aidan -
 * St Clement Bishophill York - 1872 (see also St Mary Bishophill Senior)
 * St. Crux - 1539
 * St. Cuthbert - 1581 - FHL has BTs only from 1598
 * St. Denis in Walmgate - 1558
 * St. George - closed by 1644; see St Dennis
 * St. Giles - 1586 united to St Olave
 * St. Gregory - united to St Martin on Micklegate 1586
 * St. Helen on the Walls - in 1549, united to St Cuthbert
 * St. Helen Fishergate - united with St Lawrence 1586
 * St. Helen, Stonegate - 1568
 * St. John Hungate - closed by 1586
 * St. John at Ousebridge-end - 1570
 * St. John Delpike - united with that of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate in 17th C.
 * St. Lawrence - 1606
 * St. Maurice without Monkbar - 1626
 * St. Margaret, Walmgate - 1578
 * St. Martin, Coney Street - 1557
 * St. Martin, Micklegate - 1539
 * St. Mary Bishophill Senior - 1598
 * St. Mary Bishophill Junior - 1602
 * St. Mary, Castlegate - 1604
 * St. Michael-le-Belfry - 1565
 * St. Michael, Spurriergate, or Ouse-bridge - 1598
 * St. Nicholas - 1600 - chapel to St Nicholas Hospital; closed by 1644
 * St. Olave - 1538
 * St. Paul - 1852 - see also St Mary Bishophill Senior
 * St. Peter-le-Willows - see St Margaret, Walmgate
 * St. Peter the Little - dissolved by 1549; united 1586 to All Saints Pavement
 * St. Sampson - 1626
 * St. Saviour - 1567
 * St Stephen - closed by 1600
 * St Thomas - 1855
 * St. Thomas, the Archbishop of York -
 * St. Wilfred - closed in 1585
 * Acaster Malbis - 1631
 * Acomb - 1634 - incorporated into the City of York by 1663; see also St Mary Bishophill-Senior, Holy Trinity Micklegate
 * Clifton - 1867 - see also St Olave, Marygate
 * Copmanthorpe - 1759 - see also St Mary Bishophill Junior
 * Dringhouses -1824 - also St. Mary-Bishophill-Senior, Holy Trinity-Micklegate, and Acomb parishes
 * Heworth - 1869
 * Naburn - 1653; was annexed to the rectory of St Dennis, York (City), which see
 * Upper Poppleton - 1846
 * Wells Hospital -

For a List of all those Ainsty parishes which were designated and became part of or lying within the Borough of York, see the [York Ainsty Parishes] page.

Nonconformist places of worship as of 1870 included the following:
 * Baptists 1
 * Independents 2 (chapels)
 * New Church 1
 * New Connexion Methodist 2
 * Primitive Methodist 3
 * Quakers 1 (chapel)
 * Roman Catholic 4
 * Unitarians 1 (chapel)
 * United Free Methodist 2
 * Wesleyan Association 1
 * Wesleyan Methodist 4 (chapels)
 * Wesleyan Reformers 2

Civil Registration
Records from York Registration District held at York are included in the online index available at Yorkshire BMD for post 1837 events; view the coverage table to check progress on the availability of index search.

Marriages include:


 * Church of England marriages.
 * Civil Marriages at register offices, or non-conformist churches where a registrar was required to be present at the ceremony.
 * Authorised Person marriages. These cover the non-conformist places of worship which applied to keep their own registers as a result of the Marriage Act, 1898 (bringing them into line with Jewish and Quaker marriages which had this status since 1837). In such cases an 'Authorised Person' (usually the minister or priest) recorded the ceremony instead of the registrar. Earlier weddings in these places would be included with civil marriage registers.

A secondary index of Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD however this secondary index may omit the event and may not contain the detail of the Yorkshire BMD index

Church records
Online data content from chapelry registers of York Cathedral exists at some of the following websites and for the specified ranges of years:

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