Manchester, Lancashire Genealogy

England Manchester Guide to Manchester history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

HISTORY
While the locale of Manchester is quite old, its status as a city, and one of the premier cities of England at that, occurred relatively late in time.

The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium. The Roman fort was established around AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. This name has continued, with the local residents still being called Mancunians.

Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanization was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialized city.

The Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and establishment of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1838 elevated Manchester's importance which eventually culminated in city status in 1853 – thus becoming the first new British city in over 300 years and cementing Manchester's position as the world's first industrial city.

During the same period, the building of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 (see the picture above) established Manchester as an inland port, and the building of world's first railway (from Liverpool to Manchester) resulted in rapid growth for the city itself, and its environs.

Manchester became the hub for the manufacturing region around, with cotton weaving being king.

LOCATION
Manchester lies in a bowl-shaped land area bordered to the north and east by the Pennines, a mountain chain that runs the length of northern England, and to the south by the Cheshire Plain.

Manchester is 35.0 miles (56.3 km) north-east of Liverpool and 35.0 miles (56.3 km) south-west of Sheffield, making the city the halfway point between the two. Much of the inner city, especially in the south, is flat, offering extensive views from many highrise buildings in the city of the foothills and moors of the Pennines. This feature of the terrain made for easy and rapid building as the city developed.

Manchester's geographic features were highly influential in its early development as the world's first industrial city

RELIGION
Manchester is not known for any outstanding activities relative to religion. Since the Norman conquest, the area has been considered basically Christian, and as such, initially followed the church of Rome until the dissolution initiated by Henry VIII.

Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor, founded and constructed a collegiate church for the parish in 1421. The church has since been rebuilt, and is now Manchester Cathedral; the domestic premises of the college house Chetham's School of Music and Chetham's Library

INDUSTRY
On the canal's banks, just outside the borough, the world's first industrial estate was created at Trafford Park. Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world. All this was expedited by the construction of the ship canal and the railway.

Heavy industry suffered a downturn from the 1960s and was greatly reduced under the economic policies followed by Margaret Thatcher's government after 1979. Manchester lost 150,000 jobs in manufacturing between 1961 and 1983. However the city continued to develop, and new sources of revenue were found.

The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics' Institute, David Street), from 2 to 6 June 1868. Manchester was an important cradle of the Labour Party and the Suffragette Movement. In fact, Manchester, together with Liverpool, has always been a center for left wing politics, including a large communist leaning segment.

CEMETERIES
Greater Manchester cemeteries

St Joseph's cemetery

Southern Cemetery

Phillips Park

Gorton Cemetery

Mill Lane Cemetery

GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY
Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society

City of Manchester, Tracing your History

Manchester Genuki

Manchester Archives

Manchester Our Lady, St George and St Denys, Lancashire Genealogy
Here is A Comprehensive List of All Pre-1851 Manchester Parishes and Chapelries.

Parish History
Our Lady, St George and St Denys, Manchester, the Cathedral Church, is the ancient parish and was founded in Druidic times. Here is an 1848 historical perspective of Greater Manchester, by topographer, Samuel Lewis, taken from Topographical Dictionary of England. By 1880, Manchester had at least 125 chapels of ease and district churches/chapels attached to it, and which subdivided its boundary. See A Comprehensive List of All Pre-1851 Manchester Parishes and Chapelries.

The Collegiate Church of Manchester foundation in 1421 enabled the Dean and Fellows of the Collegiate Church to control the rapid growth of the Ancient Parish population to the pecuniary advantage of the Collegiate Church.

The lack of Manchester Churches and practice of the Collegiate church contributed to the formation of the Manchester Diocese in 1847 and subsequent Diocesan building program.

Manchester Our Lady, St George and St Denys is the Ancient Parish and perhaps the largest market town in the county of Lancashire and was quite probably, the largest ancient parish in the realm. Based on Mantell's excellent background, and on evidence of no marriage registers extant for Manchester's smaller chapels (called chapelries) and the town's smaller ecclesiastical parishes, the Cathedral then was where just about all Mancunians were married. The only other known churches in Greater Manchester allowed to marry couples were Manchester St John's Deangate and Manchester St Mary's.

A useful background article by Henry Mantell Manchester Cathedral explains the influence of the Dean and Fellows of the Collegiate church on Manchester Parish records.

Other place-names (see above "A Comprehensive List...") within the parish boundaries include but are not limited to the following places and townships:

Ancoats Ardwick Beswick Birch (see also Birch-in-Rusholme) Blackley Bradford Broughton-cum-Kersal Burnage Cheetham Chorlton cum Hardy Chorlton-upon-Medlock Crumpsall Denton Didsbury Droylsden Failsworth Gorton Haughton Heaton-Mersey Heaton-Norris Harpurhay Hulme Longsight Moss-Side Moston Newton (sometimes referred to as "Newton-Heath"; see also Birch in Rusholme) Ordsall Pendlebury Pendleton near Salford Paddington Redbank Salford Stretford Whalley Range Withington

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 (See under "England" main page).

There are two important online sites with indexes to the births, marriages and deaths. These are:


 * FreeBMD.- index to the GRO (General Register Offices) BMDs)
 * Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths at the Lancashire BMD - indexes to the local BMDs held at (the superintendent) registrar offices throughout most of Lancashire

If, for example, a certificate cannot be located in the FreeBMD index website, then try the local registrar offices website at Lancashire BMD to find it. often this proves successful in locating the appropriate certificate.

Church records
Online Records
 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * 1603 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index and images

There are online transcriptions for most of the Manchester City ecclesiastical parishes--including the ancient parish (Cathedral) of Our Lady, St George and St Denys, and for the baptism, marriage and burial registers of many of its numerous (approximately 150) chapelries lying within its boundaries. Displayed below are those chapelries (including the Cathedral) with available online data located at the web sites indicated below; note the ranges of years:

Note the following two churches within the borders of Manchester ancient parish (the Cathedral ofSt Mary, St George St Denys) were the only other churches holding rights and privileges to marry couples, from 1754-1837:


 * 1) Manchester St John's Deansgate - from 1804
 * 2) Manchester St Mary's Chapelry - from 1806

Even those residing in the township of Salford (also within the boundary of Manchester) were required, according to Church of England policy, to marry at the mother parish--that is--Manchester Cathedral.

Original Records
Original parish and chapel registers are held at the Manchester Record Office, William Brown Street, Manchester L3 8EW, United Kingdom.

Microfilmed copies of original Manchester Cathedral and most of its over 150 chapelries' registers are mostly available at the Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A. and its 4,600 satellite FamilySearch Centersworldwide. These films may be ordered for and original baptism, marriage and burial entries may be viewed at these centers.

Poor Law Unions
Manchester Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Lancashire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Taxation

 * 1541 - (p. 138)


 * 1622 - (p. 148)

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