Pontefract, Yorkshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
PONTEFRACT (St.Giles), a borough, market town, and parish, in the Upper division of the wapentake of Osgoldcross, W. riding of York; comprising the townships of Carleton, East Hardwick, Monkhill, Pontefract, and Tanshelf, and the chapelry of Knottingley; and containing 9851 inhabitants, of whom 4669 are in the borough, 23 miles (S.S. W.) from York, and 177½ (N. N. W.) from London. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans, and a Roman Catholic chapel.

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Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
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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.

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 - West Riding of Yorkshire ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Yorkshire ($)
 * 1611-1861 Archdeaconry of Richmond, England, Church of England Marriage Bonds, 1611-1861 at Ancestry – index & images ($)
 * 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)

Genealogy
Neyt, E. James Kersley, M.S.M. The Temperant Colour Sergeant. Picture of the Kersley family, Pontefract. 1898 with names, and a history of the family. The hampshire Family Historian, vol. XII,no.2, August 1985, pages 97-99. Family History Library Ref. 942.27 B2h v.12

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