Upton in Overchurch, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to Upton in Overchurch, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
UPTON, is a village and a parish in Wirral district, Cheshire. The village stands 4 miles West of Birkenhead railway station; and has a post-office under Birkenhead. The parish is sometimes called Overchurch.

Upton (Overchurch), St. Mary is the ancient parish church for Upton by Birkenhead in the Wirral Hundred of Cheshire.

Upton was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Optone and was written as being in the possession of William Malbank. Upton was the primary economic centre of northern Wirral until the industrial development of Birkenhead during the mid-19th century.

Upton was a township and parish in the Wirral Hundred, which included the nearby hamlet of Overchurch.

There is evidence of a church building at Overchurch from about 600 AD. A Runic Stone was discovered at Overchurch dating between 700-900 AD. The stone invited people to 'pray for Aethelmund'.

There followed a Norman church which was damaged by storms and destroyed by a fire in 1813.

A small chapel existed on Greenbank for a few years before the accelerating growth of population prompted the need for a larger church building.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Cheshire ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Cheshire ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * Upton, St. Joseph (Roman Catholic). Founded 1863.
 * Upton, Presbyterian Church, Ford Road. Built in 1898.

Non-Conformist Records:

Church records of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Upton, 1914-1940 Microfilm copy of originals at the Cheshire Record Office in Chester, England. Cheshire Record Office call no.: ERC 28/5473/1. Mostly Latin.

Baptisms, 1914-1940. VAULT BRITISH Film 2197776 Item 2

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage and death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 * Wirral (1837–1937)

Poor Law Unions

 * Wirral

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cheshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

See also England Cheshire Probate Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

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
Upton in Overchurch (see upton by Birkenhead) on GENUKI