Denbighshire, Wales Genealogy

Wales Denbighshire

Denbighshire (Welsh: Sir Ddinbych) was one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. It was a maritime county, bounded to the north by the Irish Sea, to the east by Flintshire, Cheshire (England) and Shropshire (England), to the south by Montgomeryshire and Merionethshire, and to the west by Caernarfonshire.

The county was created following the Act of Union of 1535, between Wales and England, and was formed from the cantrefi (hundreds) of Rhos; Rhufoniog; Dyffryn Clwyd; Iâl; Nanheudwy; Cynllaith and the Maelor Gymraeg which were formerly in the Welsh kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys Fadog.

The administrative county of Denbighshire, with an elected county council, was created in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. The county was governed by an elected county council, who took over the functions of the Quarter Sessions courts. The county town was Ruthin and other main towns were Wrexham and Denbigh.

Motto: Duw A Digon (English: With God, enough).


 * 1885 County Map: Courtesy of London Ancestor

Chapman Code: DEN



Under the Local Government Act 1972, the county and administrative county of Denbighshire were abolished, for both local government and ceremonial purposes, on April 1, 1974. Most of Denbighshire becoming part of the newly formed county of Clwyd covering the whole of north-east Wales. However, the urban district of Llanrwst and five rural parishes, became part of the newly formed county of Gwynedd which covered the whole of north-west Wales.



Following further local government reorganisation, the county of Clwyd was abolished on April 1, 1996 and the present-day county of Denbighshire was created. This covers a substantially different area from the historic county of Denbighshire however. The eastern part of the ancient county of Denbighshire, together with the Maelor exclave of the ancient county of Flintshire, became the newly formed County Borough of Wrexham.

Topics

 * Denbighshire Parish Registers available on-line or in print.
 * Denbighshire Burial Records available in print.
 * Denbighshire Nonconformist Records.
 * Denbighshire Archives. Details of archives covering the historic county.
 * Denbighshire Register Offices. Details of offices holding birth, marriage and death record from the historic county.
 * Clwyd Family History Society Resource Centre in Cefn Mawr, Wrexham.
 * The Collieries in Denbighshire. Information on the collieries in the Denbighshire coalfield.
 * The Gresford Disaster. The disaster which occurred in 1934 at Gresford colliery.
 * Denbighshire Poor Law Unions

Research tools

 * The North Wales BMD. A searchable index of births marriages and deaths within the county of Denbighshire from 1837 to around 1950.
 * Nonconformist Records. Use a spreadsheet list of registers and alternate records.
 * Wrexham Cemetery burial records. On-line search for burials.
 * Wrexham Open Church Network Graveyard Search. Currently available for Marchwiel (St Marcella's Church); Holt (St Chad's Church) and Ruabon (St Mary's Church)

Jurisdictions

 * Hamlet
 * Parish: an area of varying size under the responsibility of a clergyman of the Church of England/Church in Wales
 * Hundred: an administrative subdivision of a county, usually a group of two or more parishes
 * Sub-district: comprised of more than one civil parish
 * Registration District
 * Poor Law Union
 * Archdeaconry
 * Diocese
 * County

Useful websites

 * NorthWalesBMD indexes 1837-1950
 * Clwyd Family History Society


 * more Denbighshire websites ...

Famous people from Denbighshire

 * Sir Henry Morton Stanley. Born in the town of Denbigh on January 28, 1841 as John Rowlands. He spent some of his early life in the workhouse at St Asaph. After emigrating to America he became a journalist and explorer. He died on London, England on May 10, 1904.


 * John Godfrey Parry-Thomas. Born in Wrexham on April 6, 1884, the son of a curate. He became an engineer and motor-racing driver. He was killed at Pendine Sands, Carmarthenshire in March 3, 1927 while attempting to break the world land speed record in his car, Babs. He is buried in Byfleet, Surrey, England.


 * George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem. Born in the family estate at Acton Hall, Wrexham on May 15, 1645. He later became a High Court judge and presided over the Bloody Assizes at which harsh sentences were handed out to the Duke of Monmouth's followers at Monmouth's Rebellion, after which he became infamous as The Hanging Judge. Having rising to the position of Lord Chancellor he later fell out-of-favour and died while in custody in the Tower of London, England, on April 18, 1689.


 * Elihu Yale. Born on April 5, 1649, in Boston, Massachusetts, Yale's ancestry can be traced back to the family estate at Plas yn Iâl near the village of Llandegla. The name Yale is the English spelling of the Welsh place name, Iâl. Yale was a wealthy businessman and became the first benefactor and namesake of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He died in London, England on July 8, 1721, and is buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St. Giles in Wrexham.