Birstall, Yorkshire Genealogy

England &gt; Yorkshire &gt; West Riding &gt; Birstall 

Parish Records
Birstall is an ancient parish (created before 1813). The Church of England records for Birstall St. Peter's survive from 1558. The following is a list of other pre-1837 Church of England churches within the parish of Birstall, with the dates of their earliest records:


 * St. James Tong (1550)
 * Whitechapel Cleckheaton (1761)
 * St. Paul's Drighlington (1816)
 * Christ Church Liversedge (1816)
 * St. James Heckmondwike (1831)
 * St. Paul's Birkenshaw (1832)
 * St. John's Cleckheaton (1832)

The original registers are deposited at the West Yorkshire Archives in Wakefield. Microfilm/fiche copies are available at archive branches such as Leeds at Sheepscar and Kirklees in Huddersfield.

The copies made by the minister (ordered by an Act of 1598) and sent each year to the Bishop of the diocese (known as parish register transcripts or Bishop's transcripts) survive from 1600 and are deposited at the West Yorkshire Archives branch in Sheepscar, Leeds.

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has both parish registers and bishop's transcripts on microfilm for Birstall and its chapelries, which are listed in the Family History Library Catalog. Many of these records are indexed in the International Genealogical Index available online through the 'Advanced Search' at www.familysearch.org.