Oswestry, Shropshire Genealogy

A guide to genealogy in Oswestry, with information on where to find birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records; census records; wills; cemeteries; maps; etc.

Oswestry (Welsh: Croesoswallt) is a town of Shropshire, England. It is a former historic market town and stands on the border with Wales.

Parish History
‎In 1887: "Oswestry.-- mun. bor., market town, and par., Shropshire, 18 miles NW. of Shrewsbury and 172 miles from London by rail - par., 16,234 ac., pop. 11,923; bor., 1888 ac., pop. 7847; P.O., T.O., 2 Banks, 2 newspapers. Market-days, Wednesday and Saturday. One of the chief towns on the Welsh border, Oswestry is a place of ancient British origin. ... Trade in Oswestry is mainly connected with malting and the exportation of agricultural produce". The town of Oswestry sits on the border between England and Wales and, at various times, been in both countries.

Historically the parish of Oswestry formed part of the Welsh Diocese of St. Asaph. However, following the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Wales on 31 March 1920, it was transferred to the English Diocese of Lichfield.

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
Oswestry 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 may be found on Mel Lockie. Records are also available at the Shropshire Archives.

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

Websites
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SAL/Oswestry/index.html