Worcester St Mary Cathedral, Worcestershire Genealogy

Guide to Worcester St Mary Cathedral, Worcestershire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Worcester was first erected into a see in the reign of Ethelred, and, in 679, Bosel was consecrated first bishop. The establishment, which was amply endowed by successive Saxon monarchs, consisted of Secular canons till the eighth century, when a convent, dedicated to St. Mary, was founded near the cathedral of St. Peter, of which Ethelburga was abbess. On her death, the convent was converted into a monastery for monks of the Benedictine order. The disputes which subsequently arose between the Secular clergy and the monks terminated in 969, by the surrender of the church of St. Peter to the latter; and the church of St. Mary became the cathedral of the diocese.

Ecclesiastically an extra-parochial. Civilly not separate but included in Worcester College Precincts Civil Parish. It included: A chapel at Worcester St Alban Ancient Parish, which was a separate parish by 1206. A chapel at Worcester St Helen Ancient Parish, which was a separate parish by the 10th century. A chapel at Spetchley, which was a separate parish by 1291.

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.

Church records
Worcester St Mary Cathedral parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the The Hive (where the Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service is located).

Records Location
The original records are held at the Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service. For complete information, including map and hours of operation, see Worcestershire County Council, Archive and Archaeology.

The Family History Library has microfilmed the parish registers and the bishop's transcripts. For the parish registers, you will need to look in the FamilySearch Catalog under England, Worcester, Worcester and find St. Martin's mixed in with other parishes for the city of Worcester. The Bishop's Transcripts for Worcester are not filed by parish, but by year for the whole county. Thus, each year's transcripts are on a different film. An FHL finding aid giving FHL film numbers by parish has been compiled and is available as FHL book 942.4 K29bt, also available on microfiche at Family History Centers, fiche 6035756 (2 fiches).

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Worcestershire 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

Websites
Worcester Branch of the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.