Rochdale St Chad, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



See a Comprehensive List of Rochdale Chapelries

'''Part of this parish is in Yorkshire. See also Rochdale St Chad, Yorkshire.'''

Parish History
ROCHDALE St Chad, a borough, market-town, and parish, and the head of a union, chiefly in the hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, but partly in the Upper division of the wapentake of Agbrigg, W. riding of York, 10½ miles north by northeast of Manchester.

Rochdale St Chad Parish, serving a population of nearly one hundred thousand (by 1851), was not the only church built within its boundary. St Chad's parish boundary was divided up into about twenty chapelry districts, each with is own chapel of ease (or church), with baptism and burial registers (rarely marriages--which instead were usually performed at the ancient parish of St Chad's, Rochdale), serving within its parish boundary, depending on the time period. Be certain to see the Comprehensive List of Rochdale Chapelries in order to identify its chapels and the availability of all their registers which covered this ancient parish. Identifying all of St Chad's chapels will greatly faclitate thorough research in this parish.

For a list of other places within the boundary of this parish, view an excellent 1870 historical summary of Rochdale at VisionofBritain.

Cemeteries
The Family History Library's British collection has.

Civil Registration of Births, Marriages &amp; Deaths - 1837 to the Present
Read about England Civil Registration (vital records) of birth, marriages and deaths on the England main page.

Online Indexes

There are two separate (free) indexes available for Lancashire civil registration of births, marriages and deaths. One index covers all registrations nation-wide, and one index covers the copies of the local registration district office's certificate copies for all registration districts throughout Lancashire, as follows:


 * FreeBMD - an online (free) index to the certificates held at the General Registrar's Office, formerly in London, now in Solihull, Merseyside, UK. The years currently covered in this index include July, 1837 to at least 1940.
 * LancashireBMD - an online index (free) to the local superintendant's registrar of births, marriages and deaths for all registration districts throughout Lancashire, for the following range of years and their events: births 1837-1974; marriages 1837-2010; deaths 1837-1975.
 * Lancashire-OPC.org.uk provides numerous parish and chapel transcriptions online (free) for the post-1837 to 1910 period.

Indexes

FamilySearch's Family History Library from July, 1837 to 1983 in microform media.

Church Records
St Chad Rochdale parish has been a very populated township possessing about 20 or more chapelries, and district churches each with church registers. Currently, only a few of the church registers have been transcribed and published online. These are at the following web sites:


 * FamilySearch (has indexed the following church or chapel registers):

-  -  -  -  -  (partly also in the parish of Ashton-under-Lyne) -  -


 * Lancashire Online Parish Clerk,, a free volunteer-based web site has indexed and provided online data content for the following Rochdale parish (St Chad) and its attached chapelries' registers:

- Rochdale St Chad with St Mary - bapts 1582-1835; marrs 1582-1898; burials 1582-1896 - Butterworth Milnrow - bapts 1715-1851; burials 1799-1849 - Tunstead Holy Trinity - Bapts 1843-1848 - Whitworth - bapts 1758-1851; burials 1784-1851

Those registers of St Chad's and the rest of its chapelries which have no known online content, include the following ones:

- St Chad's - bapts 1836-1900 - Dobcross - from 1787 - Friarmere - from 1767 - Friezeland - from 1849 - Healey - from 1847 - Lees - from 1743 - 1787; 1813-1900 (partly also in the parish of Ashton-under-Lyne) - Littleborough - 1741 - nil - Lydgate St Marys - from 1788 - Saddleworth - from 1612 - Smallbridge - from 1834 - Spotland St Clement - from 1835 - Todmorden - from 1625 - Todmorden Christ Church - from 1832 - Walsden - from 1845 - Wardleworth St James - from 1821 - Wardle with Wuerdle St John (see Smallbridge) - Wardleworth St Mary the Baum – from 1747

While the above chapelries and St Chad's registers do not currently have online indexed content, FamilySearch does have microfilm copies of the original Bishop's transcripts and/or parish registers for most of Rochdale's chapels of ease and churches. Most of the original church or chapel registers are found at the Manchester Central Library Local Studies Unit, Lancashire, England, or, at the local chapel.

Census
The following web sites provide online census transcriptions with scanned images ($) for Hawkeshead Parish:

Ancestry.co.uk

FindMyPast.com

Poor Law Unions
Rochdale Parish was the head of a poor law union.

Probate records with indexes are available for Hawkshead Parish
Go to the Lancashire Probate Records and follow the step by step instructions to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction and search the 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

Web sites
Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.