Manchester Our Lady, St George and St Denys, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Guide to Manchester Cathedral family history and genealogy. Parish records and chapelries.

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 about 150 chapels of ease and district churches/chapels attached to it, serving its many boundaried divisions. 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. A useful background article by Henry Mantell http://www.aidan.co.uk/article_manchester_cathedral.htm explains the influence of the Dean and Fellows of the Collegiate church on Manchester Parish records.

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 programme.

Manchester Our Lady, St George and St Denys is the Ancient Parish and perhaps the largest market town in the county of Lancashire. Other places (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 Harpurhey 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. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Church records
Online Records

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 few churches within the borders of Manchester ancient parish (the Cathedral of St Mary, St George &amp; St Denys) which, like the Cathedral Church, held rights and privileges to marry couples in their respective chapelries:


 * 1) Manchester St John's Deansgate - from 1804
 * 2) Manchester St Mary's Chapelry - from 1806
 * 3) Ardwick St Thomas - 1740

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 150chapelries' 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. Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts 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

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.

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