Backford, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
BACKFORD (St. Oswald), is a parish, in the union of Great Boughton, partly in the Higher division of the hundred of Wirral, and partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Broxton, S. division of the county of Chester; it is comprised of the townships of Backford, Caughall, Chorlton, Lea, and Mollington-Tarrant.

Backford, St. Oswald is an ancient parish serving the townships of Backford, Caughall, Chorlton by Backford, Great Mollington and Lea by Backford. Registers of Baptisms 1562–1981, Marriages 1562–1977 and Burials 1573–1981 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office.

St Oswald's Church, Backford is in the village of Backford, northwest of Chester, Cheshire. The church dates from the 14th century with later additions and restorations. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Wirral South. Its benefice is combined with that of Holy Trinity Church, Capenhurst.

The first mention of a church on this site is in the 13th century. Soon after this it was given by the barons of Dunham Massey to the Benedictine Priory at Birkenhead. At the dissolution of the monasteries the advowson was passed to the Diocese of Chester. The chancel dates from the 14th century and the tower from the 15th century. The nave was rebuilt in 1728–31.

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

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 - Cheshire ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Cheshire ($)
 * 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 (coverage may vary)
 * 1671-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

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

 * Great Boughton (1837-1869)
 * Chester (1870-1937)
 * West Cheshire (1937)

Poor Law Unions
Tarvin (previously Great Boughton) Poor Law Union, Cheshire

Chester Poor Law Union (1871-1930)

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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Backford on GENUKI