Lancashire Church Records

Before 1837 church records are the main source for genealogical research in Lancashire. They typically record baptisms, marriages and burials. After 1837 they were superseded by Civil Registration. However they remain useful post-1837 for determining which religions your ancestors belonged to and due to the costs for accessing civil registration records.

Church of England
Lancashire was comprised of at least 75 ancient parishes, but well over 400 extant chapels (chapelries) and district churches prior to 1851. It is very important to note that each parish had many chapels with their own registers. On average each parish had 8, but Manchester had about 160!

To view Lancashire's parishes and/or chapelries, click on the links below for the desired parish or chapelry.


 * 1) The Parishes(A-Z)
 * 2) The Chapelries(A-Z)

Online records

 * FamilySearch has transcribed over 21 million parish records and cemetery records from Lancashire entries; see these collections of records: Oldham Cemetery Registers, Lancashire Parish Registers and Manchester Parish Registers
 * Lancashire Online Parish Clerks (OPCs) . Indexes and transcripts only, no images. This site has transcribed over 9.3 million baptism, marriage, burial and banns entries for the county as of April 2018 . Search by parish or the whole county
 * Lancashire Parish Register Society transcribes and publishes parish registers for pre-1837 Lancashire. Their published books may be accessed at local public and college libraries and archive institutions worldwide.
 * Ancestry ($) has indexes (12.6 million) and images of the nearly all Lancashire Church of England parish records; These are found in many sometimes overlapping collections, arranged by location (Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, Lancashire) and date. For example, Manchester, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
 * FindMyPast has records for Manchester (2.6 million).
 * FreeReg.org.uk has some records for Lancashire.
 * Manchester burials online

IGI and Extracted Records
Other Sources
 * 48% of Lancashire's parishes are indexed in Boyd's Marriage Index (£). Coverage. Popular places to marry included the towns of Garstang, Kirkham, Lancaster, Leyland, Manchester, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, Standish, and Wigan.
 * 41 Lancashire parishes are indexed in Joiner's Marriage Index (£). Coverage.
 * Burials from 12 Lancashire places (134,942 entries) are included in the National Burial Index (£). Coverage.
 * 825,657 Lancashire entries are included in England &amp; Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906 at Ancestry (£). Formerly known as British Isles Vital Records Index - 2nd Ed. Coverage.
 * 287,538 Lancashire entries are included in England &amp; Wales Marriages, 1538-1940 at Ancestry (£). Formerly known as British Isles Vital Records Index - 2nd Ed. Coverage.
 * Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths 8,837,341 births, 4,240,187 marriages, 4,742,130 deaths
 * Lancashire, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 (£). 931,033 entries.
 * Lancashire, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1911 (£). 850,138 entries.
 * Lancashire, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1986 (£). 441,009 entries.
 * Lancashire, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 (£). 645,187 entries.
 * Lancashire, England, Confirmations, 1856-1922 (£). 3,807 entries.

Marriage Licences
 * 1648-1755 - Marriage Bonds for the Deaneries of Lonsdale, Kendal, Furness and Copel: Part of the Archdeaconry of Richmond, Now Preserved at Lancaster (Preston). 7 vols. . Digitised volumes: |.


 * 1668-1762 - Diocese of Carlisle, Marriage Licence/Bonds. 3 vols..

Catholic Records
Recusant rolls:


 * 1628 - Earwaker, J.P. Three Lancashire Subsidy Rolls, viz., for the Hundred of Salford, 1541, the Hundred of Salford, 1622 and the Hundred of Leyland, 1628, Together with a Recusant Roll for the Hundred of Leyland, in 1628. London: Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1885. Digital version at - free.


 * The Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society (MLFHS) have made transcriptions of Catholic records from Manchester. Basic information is free online, the full details can only be viewed on CDs that must be ordered.
 * Liverpool History Projectshas over 200,000 Catholic church records from Liverpool.
 * Ancestry ($) has about 2.4 million Catholic church records from Liverpool.

For Further Reading

 * Raymond, Stuart A. Lancashire: a genealogical bibliography, vol. 2. Registers, inscriptions and wills. Birmingham [England]: Federation of Family History Societies, c 1996-1997.