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England Lancashire  Liverpool

Guide to Liverpool history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
The picture above shows the world famous waterfront of Liverpool;, with the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building, and the Port of Liverpool Authority Building, as shown left to right. Departing the dock is one of the iconic Mersey Ferry boats.

The history of Liverpool can be traced back to 1190 when the place was known as 'Liuerpul', possibly meaning a pool or creek with muddy water, though other origins of the name have been suggested.

The borough was founded by royal charter in 1207, but Liverpool remained a small settlement until its trade with Ireland and coastal parts of England and Wales was overtaken by trade with Africa and the West Indies, which included the slave trade. Due to the rapid growth of cotton growing in the American deep south, plus the need for farm labor for the sugar plantations in the Caribbean, resulted in a rapid growth of the port specializing in the slave trade. The heroic lifetime work of Mr. William Wilberforce, a northern MP, resulted in the passage of a bill through the British parliament abolishing slaving, and Liverpool turned to more acceptable shipping.

The town's first wet dock was opened in 1715 and Liverpool's expansion to become a major city continued over the next two centuries. However it was never a major naval port, as most of the military marine activity was centered along the south coast of England, facing Europe.

By the start of the nineteenth century, a large volume of trade was passing through Liverpool. In 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened. From the late 1700's it became the major western European port for emigrants from Northern Europe to travel to the New World. In fact this shipping industry became so important that there is now a statue memorializing this activity at the Albert Dock entrance.

The population of the city grew rapidly, especially with Irish migrants; by 1851, one quarter of the city's population was Irish-born. As growth continued, the city became known as "the second city of the Empire", and was also called "the New York of Europe". During the Second World War, the city was the center for planning the crucial Battle of the Atlantic, and suffered a blitz second only to London's.

From the mid-twentieth century, Liverpool's docks and traditional manufacturing industries went into sharp decline, with the advent of containerization making the city's docks obsolete. The unemployment rate in Liverpool rose to one of the highest in the UK. Over the same period, starting in the early 1960s, the city became internationally renowned for its culture, particularly as the center of the "Merseybeat" sound which became synonymous with The Beatles. In recent years, Liverpool's economy has recovered, partly due to tourism as well as substantial investment in regeneration schemes. The city was a European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Parish History
LIVERPOOL, a considerable port, situated on the east bank of the River Mersey, and previously part of the county of Lancashire, but since 1 April 1974 a part of the new county of Merseyside.

Parishes arose from Church of England divisions, and were originally purely ecclesiastical divisions. Over time they acquired civil administration powers.

The Highways Act 1555 made parishes responsible for the upkeep of roads. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses; the work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the Surveyor of Highways.

The poor were looked after by the monasteries, until their dissolution by King Henry the Eighth. In 1572, magistrates were given power to 'survey the poor' and impose taxes for their relief. This system was made more formal by the Poor Law Act 1601, which made parishes responsible for administering the Poor Law; overseers were appointed to charge a rate to support the poor of the parish. The 19th century saw an increase in the responsibility of parishes, although the Poor Law powers were transferred to Poor Law Unions. The Public Health Act 1872 grouped parishes into Rural Sanitary Districts, based on the Poor Law Unions; these subsequently formed the basis for Rural Districts.

Parishes were run by vestries, meeting annually to appoint officials, and were generally identical to ecclesiastical parishes, although some townships in large parishes administered the Poor Law themselves; under the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882, all extra-parochial areas and townships that levied a separate rate became independent civil parishes.

Civil parishes in their modern sense date from the Local Government Act 1894, which abolished vestries; established elected parish councils in all rural parishes with more than 300 electors; grouped rural parishes into Rural Districts; and aligned parish boundaries with county and borough boundaries. Urban civil parishes continued to exist, and were generally coterminous with the Urban District, Municipal Borough or County Borough in which they were situated; many large towns contained a number of parishes, and these were usually merged into one. Parish councils were not formed in urban areas, and the only function of the parish was to elect guardians to Poor Law Unions; with the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930 the parishes had only a nominal existence.

The Local Government Act 1972 retained civil parishes in rural areas, and many former Urban Districts and Municipal Boroughs that were being abolished, were replaced by new successor parishes; urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes became unparished areas.

List of Liverpool Parishes
To help search for family records, the following Comprehensive List of Liverpool St Peter's Parishes and Chapelries has been compiled here:


 * Liverpool St Peter and St Nicholas
 * Liverpool All Saints Great Nelson St - 1835
 * Liverpool, All Saints Grosvenor - 1798 (closed in 1845)
 * Liverpool All Souls Vauxhall - 1853
 * Liverpool Blessed Virgin Mary - 1829
 * Liverpool Christ Church, Hunter St - 1799
 * Liverpool Holy Innocents
 * Liverpool Holy Trinity – 1792
 * Liverpool, Mariner's Church - 1827
 * Liverpool, St Alban's – 1846 (a.k.a. Bevington Church)
 * Liverpool, St Andrew's - 1815
 * Liverpool, St Anne's, Richmond - 1773
 * Liverpool, St Barnabas – 1841
 * Liverpool, St Bartholomew's – 1841
 * Liverpool, St Bride's - 1831
 * Liverpool, St Catherine's - 1831
 * Liverpool, St David's - 1827
 * Liverpool, St George's - 1734
 * Liverpool, St John's - 1767
 * Liverpool St John the Evangelist - 1836
 * Liverpool, St Luke's - 1831
 * Liverpool, St Mark's - 1815
 * Liverpool, St Martin-in-the Fields - 1829
 * Liverpool St Martin Cemetery
 * Liverpool St Mary's Cemetery
 * Liverpool St Mary
 * Liverpool, St Mary-for-the-Blind Church - 1829
 * Liverpool, St Mary Magdalen - 1858
 * Liverpool, St Mathias' - 1834
 * Liverpool, St Matthew's - 1798
 * Liverpool, St Michael's - 1826
 * Liverpool St Nicholas, 1659 - united with Liverpool St Peter in 1838
 * Liverpool, St Paul's - 1769
 * Liverpool, St Peter's - 1704
 * Liverpool, St Philip's - 1817
 * Liverpool, St Saviour's - 1841
 * Liverpool, St Silas' - 1841
 * Liverpool, St Simon's - 1827
 * Liverpool, St Stephen's - 1792
 * Liverpool, St Thomas' - 1750
 * Liverpool, St Thomas' - 1750

Also part of the civil parish of Liverpool are the following district chapelries, which formed the southern suburb of and also within the boundaries of Liverpool St Peter and St Nicholas:


 * Toxteth Park All Saints - 1885
 * Toxteth Park Christ Church - 1871
 * Toxteth Park Holy Trinity - 1859
 * Toxteth Park St Barnabas - 1841
 * Toxteth Park St Bede - 1882
 * Toxteth Park St Brides - 1831
 * Toxteth Park St Clement - 1841
 * Toxteth Park St Cleopas Mission Church - 1866
 * Toxteth Park St Gabriel - 1885
 * Toxteth Park St James - 1775
 * Toxteth Park St Clement - 1841
 * Toxteth Park St John the Baptist - 1832
 * Toxteth Park St Margaret - 1869
 * Toxteth Park St Matthew - 1848 (chapelry registers are only available at the Manchester Central Library)
 * Toxteth Park St Michael in the Hamlet - 1815 (extra parochial)
 * Toxteth Park St Nathaniel - 1869 (mostly in West Derby Parish)
 * Toxteth Park St Paul - 1848
 * Toxteth Park St Philemon - 1873
 * Toxteth Park St Saviour - 1841
 * Toxteth Park St Silas - 1865
 * Toxteth Park St Thomas-in-the-Fields - 1843 (chapelry registers are only available at the Liverpool Record Office)

Due to its close proximity, see also Walton-on-the-Hill Parish and its chapelries, i.e. Everton.

Liverpool also had in-ordinately large Irish population, many of which were Roman Catholic. By 1831, Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England (published 1831) identified that there were at least five Roman Catholic parishes lying within its boundaries. However, on further study, here is a list all those known Roman Catholic churches within the boundaries of the city--including ten (10) of them; the Family History Library has a few of them (see hyper-links below); there were, prior to 1900, nearly 40 Catholic parishes within Liverpool proper:


 * St Alban - 1807
 * St Anne
 * St Ethelburga - 1843
 * St Nicholas - 1813 (some burials)
 * St Anthony - 1804 (see also St Anthony's website for some data online)
 * St Peter – 1788
 * St Mary, Woolton – 1707
 * St Swithin - 1758
 * St Patrick - 1827
 * St Joseph - 1798

Archives
Liverpool City  Central Library, Archives section William Brown Street, L3 8EW Telephone: +44 0151 233 3069.
 * Liverpool City Archives Office

Cemeteries (Civil)
Below is a list of non-parish church cemeteries in Liverpool.


 * Anfield cemetery - 236 Priory Rd, Phone: +44 151 233 3004
 * Toxteth Park Cemetery - Liverpool, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 233 3004
 * West Derby Cemetery - Liverpool L11 2, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 546 2128
 * Kirkdale Cemetery - Liverpool, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 233 3004
 * Everton Cemetery - Liverpool L9 7, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 233 3004
 * Walton Park Cemetery - Liverpool, No Phone number available.
 * Yewtree Cemetery - Liverpool, No phone number available.
 * Allerton Cemetery - 192 Woolton Rd, Allerton L19 5NF, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 233 3004
 * Bootle Cemetery - Linacre Ln, Bootle, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 924 5143
 * Huyton Parish Cemetery - Derby Rd, Liverpool L36 9XJ, United Kingdom, No phone number available.
 * Liverpool Jewish Cemetery - Dean Road, Liverpool L7 2RN, No phone number available

Other websites listing cemeteries:
 * Deceased Online
 * Findagrave

Civil Registration
Civil registration is the recording of births, marriages and deaths in England and began in 1837. Civil registration records were recorded at the local registration office and the National registration offices. If you cannot find the civil registration in one index, search the other index as they are different indexes.


 * Liverpool Register Office - Online index to birth, marriages, and deaths
 * FreeBMD - National registration office index

Church Records - Non-Conformist
Non Church-of-England denominations in Liverpool include the following non-exclusive list:


 * Baptist
 * Chinese Christian Disciples Church
 * Christians
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
 * Christian Fellowship
 * Christ Embassy Church
 * Eliim New Anointing Church
 * Jesus Army Church
 * Jewish
 * Moravian/United Brethren
 * Plymouth Brethren
 * Presbyterian
 * Primitive Methodist
 * Roman Catholic
 * Society of Friends/Quaker
 * Tamil Christian Church
 * Temple of Praise Church
 * Unitarian
 * Wesleyan Methodist
 * Wesleyan Methodist Association
 * Wesleyan Methodist Reform

Online Church Records

Non-Conformist Church Records can be found at:


 * The Genealogist - $, index to non-conformist church records (does not include Anglican Church)

Societies
There are a number of family history and genealogical societies for Liverpool and Lancashire. The following are the websites of a number of them: