Altham, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
Altham was a chapelry in Whalley Deanery in the Diocese of Manchester from 1847 in the county of Lancashire, created in 1723 from, and lay within the boundary of Whalley, Lancashire Ancient Parish.

Other places in the parish include: Sykeside and Old Accrington.

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.

ALTHAM,a township and parochial chapelry, in the parish of Whalley, union of Burnley, Higher division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 5 miles west of Burnley.

The parochial chapelry comprises the townships of Altham (in which are 868 acres), Clayton-le-Moors, and New and Old Accrington (which see). The River Calder forms the northern boundary of Altham township. The Wesleyan Methodists have a place of worship; and there is a Roman Catholic chapel, erected in 1825.

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

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Online Records
Altham chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Whalley to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Altham and comprising the whole ancient parish of Whalley to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the WHALLEY PARISH page.

Altham- St James Baptisms Transcript-1596-1696- 929.3272 A3 Burials Transcript-1596-1696- 929.3272 A3 Marriage Index-1813-1837- Rossendale Fiche A3 Marriages Transcript-1596-1696- 929.3272 A3

For original registers of above please enquire at Lancashire Record Office.

The Manchester Room and Greater Manchester County Record Office Email: archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk

The Manchester Room@City Library (Local Studies)

Poor Law Unions
Burnley Poor Law Union,Lancashire

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