Taxal, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to Taxal, Cheshire family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
TAXALL (St. James), is a parish, in the union and hundred of Macclesfield, North division of the county of Chester; containing, with the township of Yeardsley with Whaley, it is 4 miles (W.) from Chapel-en-le-Frith. The church, with the exception of the tower, was taken down and rebuilt on a larger scale, in 1825. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

St James Taxal is an ancient parish on the Cheshire /Derbyshire border and includes Whaley Bridge, Yeardsley and Whaley.Although historically part of Cheshire as will be seen the hamlet is now part of Derbyshire.

The church stands on a slope above the river Goyt, in the hamlet of Taxal, which is within the Peak District National Park, approximately one mile from Whaley Bridge. There has been a church at Taxal since the 12th century. The first recorded rector was in 1287. Part of the tower is very old and possibly 12th century. The church itself has been enlarged and restored mostly in the 17th and 19th centuries. The township of Yeardsley-cum-Whaley, Cheshire, was part of the ancient parish of Taxal. The township adopted the Local Government Act 1858 and formed a local board to govern the town. Under the Local Government Act 1894 this became Yeardsley-cum-Whaley Urban District. On the Derbyshire side of the River Goyt, the parish of Fernilee was included in Chapel en le Frith Rural District.

In 1974 the Local Government Act 1972 came into force, abolishing all urban and rural districts in England and Wales, and replacing them with non-metropolitan districts. Whaley Bridge became part of the district of High Peak, with a successor parish formed for the area of the urban district.

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)
 * Baptist
 * Christians
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
 * Wesleyan Methodist
 * Wesleyan Methodist Association

Non-Conformist Records:


 * 1671-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Here is a list of parish registers on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

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

 * Macclesfield (1837–1937)
 * Cheshire East

Poor Law Unions

 * Macclesfield Poor Law Union

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to &lt;a href="Cheshire Probate Records"&gt;Cheshire Probate Records&lt;/a&gt; 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
Taxal on GENUKI