West Kirby, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to West Kirby, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
KIRBY (West), is a village, a township, and a parish in Wirral district, Cheshire. The village stands on the estuary of the Dee, 1¾ mile S by W of Hoylake railway station, and 7½ W by S of Birkenhead; and has a post office under Birkenhead. The parish contains also the townships of Hoose, Great Meols , Little Meols , Grange , Newton-cum-Larton , Frankby , Caldy , and nearly all Greasby. The church is ancient; had, prior to 1780, nave, aisles, and chancel.

St. Bridget Church is an ancient church and it is difficult to be sure of the age of the present building which is believed to have stood on the site for over 1,000 years. Some masonry, heavily restored, remains to chancel, vestry east bay and north aisle and dates from the 1300s. West tower 1492-1530. Restoration, south aisle and vestry west bay, 1869-70.

Church records
West Kirby St Bridget 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.

Cheshire Parish Register project have online search transcripts for the parish West Kirby, St. Bridget (C of E), Church Road. An ancient parish church, originally serving the townships of Caldy, Frankby, Grange, Greasby (part), Great Meols, Hoose, Little Meols, Newton cum Larton and West Kirby. Registers of Baptisms 1561–1964, Marriages 1561–1968 and Burials 1561–1970 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office

Parish registers for West Kirby, Cheshire, 1561-1964 Church of England. Parish Church of West Kirby (Cheshire) Microreproduction of originals at the Cheshire Record Office in Chester, England. Cheshire Record Office call no.: P46/1/1-4, P46/2/1-3, P46/3/1-5, P46/2651/1-2, P46/5, P46/7.

Bishop's transcripts for West Kirby, 1581-1897 Microfilm of original records in the Cheshire Record Office, Chester, England. Records are not in strict chronological order. Some intermittent years are missing. Cheshire Record Office no.: ECC/213

Banns, draft registers and churchwarden accounts, 1692-1912 Microfilm copy of original record in the Cheshire Record Office, Chester, England.Draft registers include indexes.Cheshire Record Office no.: P46/4/1-2, P46/6/1-6, P46/11/1-2.

West Kirby- St Bridget Baptisms-1561-1861- MFPR 519 Burials-1561-1812- MFPR 519 Burials-1813-1886- MFPR 520A Marriages-1561-1729- MFPR 519 Marriages-1754-1905- MFPR 520

For original registers of above please enquire at Lancashire Record Office.

The Manchester Room and Greater Manchester County Record Office Email: archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk

The Manchester Room@City Library (Local Studies)

St. Andrew (C of E), Meols Drive. Founded 1891 as a chapel to St Bridget, becoming a parish church in 1920. Registers of Baptisms from 1915 and Marriages from 1914 are held at the church.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * 1600s-1910 Cheshire Non-Conformist & Roman Catholic Registers (Baptism) 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)


 * West Kirby, St. Agnes, Darmands Green (Roman Catholic). Founded 1897
 * West Kirby, Methodist Chapel (Primitive), Eaton Road. Built in 1880, closed in 1963.
 * West Kirby, Presbyterian Church, Meols Drive. Founded 1890.
 * West Kirby, Presbyterian Church (Welsh), Grange Road. Founded 1892.
 * West Kirby, Unitarian (Free) Chapel. Built in 1910 in Grange Road, rebuilt in 1928 in Brookfield Gardens. Registers of marriages 1938–1950 and baptisms 1950–1953 are at the Cheshire Record Office.

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 (1837–94)

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
West Kirby on GENUKI