Eastham, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to Eastham, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
EASTHAM, is a township, a parish, and a sub-district, in Wirral district, Cheshire. The township lies on the river Mersey, at a ferry, and on the Chester and Birkenhead railway, between Bromborough and Hooton stations, it is 6¼ miles SSE of Birkenhead; and has a post office under Chester. The parish contains also the townships of Great Sutton, Little Sutton, Over-Pool, Nether-Pool, Childer-Thornton, and Hooton , and part of the township of Whitby. The chapelries of Hooton and Ellesmere-Port are separate benefices. There are a United Presbyterian church, and two Primitive Methodist chapels. The sub-district includes also Bromborough parish, and four townships of Bebington.

The large manor of ‘Estham’, which then included Bromborough, was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Earl Randle Gernons (Ranulf de Gernon), granted the manors of Eastham and Bromborough together with their churches to St Werburgh’s in about 1152. So Eastham had its own parish church then although it was still referred to as a chapel and was served by the mother church at Bromborough.

The church remained the property of the Abbey until 1541. In that year, the Abbey was dissolved and the building became a Cathedral by order of Henry VIII, shortly after the Church of England broke away from the Pope. Eastham church then became the property of the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral.

At that time, Eastham parish then covered seven townships: Eastham, Hooton, Childer Thornton, Little Sutton, Great Sutton, Overpool, Netherpool and also part of Whitby, all but the first now being part of the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston.

Church records
Eastham St Mary parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

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

Eastham, St. Mary (C of E). An ancient parish, originally comprising the townships of Childer Thornton, Eastham, Great Sutton, Hooton, Little Sutton, Netherpool, Overpool and Whitby (part). Registers of Baptisms 1598–1873, Marriages 1598–1992 and Burials 1598–1954 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office.

Parish registers for Eastham, Cheshire, 1598-1954 Cheshire Record Office call no.: P195/1/1-5, P195/2/1-3, P195/3/1-3, P195/4, P195/5/1-3, P195/5638/1, 3-7, 23-25.

Bishop's transcripts for Eastham, 1600-1870 Early entries in Latin. Cheshire Record Office no.: EDB 84.

Non-Conformist Churches
Eastham, United Reformed Church, Crossthwaite Avenue. Founded 1943.
 * 1600s-1910 Cheshire Non-Conformist & Roman Catholic Registers (Marriages) 17th Century-1910 at FindMyPast ($); index and images (dates may vary by parish)
 * 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

 * Wirral (1837-1974)

Poor Law Unions
Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire

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
Eastham on GENUKI