Rufford, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Rufford, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
RUFFORD St Mary, a parish, in the union of Ormskirk, hundred of Leyland, N. division of Lancashire, 5½ miles northeast by north of Ormskirk. The Wesleyans have a place of worship.

Other places in the parish include: Holmes-wood. Rufford is a village in West Lancashire, England. It lies at a point where the Leeds and Liverpool Canal (Rufford Branch), the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway, the A59 (Liverpool to Preston road) and the River Douglas all meet. Rufford is also a civil parish, which includes the neighbouring village of Holmeswood. St. Mary the Virgin, on Church Road, which was founded before 1346. The church is of brick, with a bell-cupola. There is also a Wesleyan Methodist church on Brick Kiln Lane, which was founded before 1893.



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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.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

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
Chapelry is a church or churches built in a large ecclesiastical parish to help the members attend worship services closer to their homes.

Online Parish Records Table

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 - Lancashire ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Lancashire ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
 * OnLine Parish Clerks - Lancashire - OnLine Parish Clerks project for Lancashire

Non-Conformist Churches (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Catholic

 * 1628 - 1628 List of Recusants in Rufforthe (p. 174)

Poor Law Unions
Ormskirk Poor Law Union, Lancashire

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

Taxation

 * 1628 - 1628 Subsidy of Rufforth (p. 165) J.P. Earwaker, 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 FamilySearch Digital Library.
 * 1665 - Lancashire Hearth Tax: Leyland Hundred, Rufford. E 179/132/351, The National Archives. Microfilm:.

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