Skipton, Yorkshire Genealogy

Guide to Skipton, Yorkshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
SKIPTON (Holy Trinity), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, chiefly in the E. division of the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewcross, but partly in the Upper division of the wapentake of Claro, W. riding of York, 44 miles (W.) from York, and 211miles (N. N. W.) from London; containing, with the townships of Barden, Bolton-Abbey, Draughton, Embsay with Eastby, East Halton, Hazlewood with Storiths, and part of Beamsley, 6870 inhabitants, of whom 4842 are in the town. There are places of worship for Friends, Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans. The union of Skipton comprises 42 parishes or places, and contains a population of 28,736.

Civil Registration
Records from York Registration District held at York are included in the online index available at Yorkshire BMD for post 1837 events; view the coverage table to check progress on the availability of index search. Marriages include


 * Church of England marriages.
 * Civil Marriages at register offices, or non-conformist churches where a registrar was required to be present at the ceremony.
 * Authorised Person marriages. These cover the non-conformist places of worship which applied to keep their own registers as a result of the Marriage Act, 1898 (bringing them into line with Jewish and Quaker marriages which had this status since 1837). In such cases an 'Authorised Person' (usually the minister or priest) recorded the ceremony instead of the registrar. Earlier weddings in these places would be included with civil marriage registers.

A secondary index of Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD however this secondary index may omit the event and may not contain the detail of the Yorkshire BMD index

Parish Records
This ancient parish was created before 1813. Church of England records began in 1592 for Skipton in Craven, Holy Trinity.

Church records
Skipton 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 are also available at the West Yorkshire Archive Service.

Genealogy From Periodicals
Owen, J. Philip. A Northumbrian Musician. William Gillies Whittaker D. Mus. F.R.C.O. History of William Gillies Whittaker and his wife Mary Ann, and descendants on both the paternal and maternal side. Parents were: John Whittaker and Mary Jane nee Gillies, and William and Susannah Walton Gillies with the following surnames: Turner, Heads, Pearson, Taylor, Siddell, Purves, Watkins, Swan, Percey, with photos. Article dated 1799-1976, and is found in the Northumberland &amp; Durham Family History Society, vol. 35. no.4, pages 127-131, Family History Reference 942.8 B2jo vol.35,no.4.

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