Tranmere, Cheshire Genealogy

England Cheshire  Tranmere



Parish History
Tranmere St Catherine is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Cheshire, created in 1842 from chapelry in Nether Bebington, Cheshire Ancient Parish.

Tranmere is a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. Administratively, it is also a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation in 1 April 1974, it was part of the County Borough of Birkenhead, within the geographical county of Cheshire.

Its name was given by Norwegian Vikings who settled and colonised Wirral in the 10th century. Tranmere in Old Norse is Trani-melr, meaning "Cranebird sandbank" or "sandbank with the Cranebirds".

Until the early 19th century, Tranmere was the second most populous settlement in Wirral, with a population of 353 in 1801, centred mainly in the area of what is now Church Road and the nearby hamlet of Hinderton. By 1901, the number of residents had grown to 37,709.

Tranmere Old Hall and its estate, was situated around what is now Church Road. It was a large, gabled building constructed around 1614. According to the author Philip Sulley's The Hundred of Wirral (1889), in about 1860:

"... [Tranmere Old Hall] was pulled down by an ignorant boor who became possessed of it by some mischance, to make way for shops and houses." Tranmere was absorbed into the County Borough of Birkenhead in 1877 and became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in 1974, on creation of the county of Merseyside.

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
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.

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Parish registers for St. Catherine's Church, Tranmere Microfilm copy of original record in the Cheshire Record Office, Chester, England.St. Catherine's is one of two chapelries in the township of Tranmere, in the parish of Bebington. Cheshire Record Office no.: P157/1/1-4, P157/2/1-3, P157/4382/1-5, P157/4794/3-4, P157/6017/5.

Baptisms, 1831-1889. FHL BRITISH Film 1656604 Items 4 - 6 Baptisms, 1889-1910. Marriages, 1845-1904. FHL BRITISH Film 1656605 Items 1 - 5 Baptisms, 1910-1932. Marriages, 1904-1932. FHL BRITISH Film 2197439 Items 2 - 6 Marriages, 1932-1953. FHL BRITISH Film 2262739 Items 1 - 3 An index for this parish can be found at FamilySearch Historical Records

Poor Law Unions
Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire

Birkenhead 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.

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
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.