Rochdale St Chad, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Guide to Rochdale St Chad, Lancashire family history and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records. See a Comprehensive List of Rochdale Chapelries '''Part of this parish is in Yorkshire. See also Rochdale St Chad, Yorkshire.'''

Parish History
ROCHDALE St Chad, a borough, market-town, and parish, and the head of a union, chiefly in the hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, but partly in the Upper division of the wapentake of Agbrigg, W. riding of York, 10½ miles north by northeast of Manchester.

Rochdale St Chad Parish, serving a population of nearly one hundred thousand (by 1851), was not the only church built within its boundary. St Chad's parish boundary was divided up into about twenty chapelry districts, each with is own chapel of ease (or church), with baptism and burial registers (rarely marriages--which instead were usually performed at the ancient parish of St Chad's, Rochdale), standing within its parish boundary. Be certain to see the Comprehensive List of Rochdale Chapelries in order to identify its chapels and the availability of all their registers which covered this ancient parish. Identifying all of St Chad's chapels will greatly facilitate thorough research in this parish.

For a list of other places within the boundary of this parish, view an excellent 1870 historical summary of Rochdale at VisionofBritain

Cemeteries
The Family History Library's British collection has.

Civil Registration of Births, Marriages &amp; Deaths - 1837 to the Present
Read about England Civil Registration (vital records) of birth, marriages and deaths on the England main page.

Online Indexes

There are two separate (free) indexes available for Lancashire civil registration of births, marriages and deaths. One index covers all registrations nation-wide, and one index covers the copies of the local registration districts' certificate copies for all registration districts throughout Lancashire, as follows:


 * FreeBMD - an online (free) nation-wide index to the certificates held at the General Registrar's Office, formerly in London, now in Solihull, Merseyside, UK. The years currently covered in this index include July, 1837 to at least 1940.
 * LancashireBMD - an online index (free) to county-wide births, marriages and deaths for all registration districts throughout Lancashire, for the following range of years and their events: births 1837-1974; marriages 1837-2010; deaths 1837-1975.
 * Lancashire-OPC.org.uk (below) provides numerous parish and chapel transcriptions online (free) running concurrent with the post-1837 to 1910 period. While the parish registers are not certified copies of the civil certificates of birth and death, they do however, often provide primary source birth (baptisms/christenings) and death (burials) information; of especial note are the post-1837 parish marriage registers which provide an exact replica of the civil registration certificates of marriages.

Indexes

FamilySearch's Family History Library from July, 1837 to 1983 in microform media.

Church Records
Online Records

St Chad Rochdale parish has been a very populated township possessing about 20 or more chapelries, and district churches each with church registers. There are online transcriptions for St Chad Rochdale Parish, and for the baptism, marriage and burial registers of many of its attached chapelries lying within its boundary. Displayed below are those chapelries attached to St Chad ancient parish) along with the ranges of years for which there is available online data at the web sites indicated below:

Original Records Most of St Chad's original parish registers and its attched chapelries and their registers are found at the Manchester Central Library Local Studies Unit, Lancashire, England, or, a few may still be in local custody (held at the local chapel).

While a few of the above chapelries and St Chad's parish burial registers do not currently have online indexed content, FamilySearch does have microfilm copies of the original Bishop's transcripts and/or parish registers for most of Rochdale's chapels of ease and churches. These may be circulated to and searched at any of its 4600 FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

Census
The Family History Library has an 1851 census surname index of Lancashire - Rochdale, Butterworth &amp; Castleton subdistricts: Public Redords Office ref HO 107/2244. FHL British Book 942.72 X22c v 21 and on FHL British Microfiche 6414326

Genealogy
Woodhead of Newbiggin (Northumberland) and Shawforth Valley. A Pedigree of the Woodheads dating from 1779-1975 to be found in The Lancashire Family and Heraldry Soc. Magazine, vol. 11, no. 2, page 26-27, May 1990, Family History Library Ref. 942.72 B2r vol. 11.

Poor Law Unions
Rochdale Parish was the head of a poor law union.

Probate records with indexes are available for Hawkshead Parish
Go to the Lancashire Probate Records and follow the step by step instructions to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction and search the 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