Chorley, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
CHORLEY, a township, in the parish of Wilmslow, union and hundred of Macclesfield, N. division of the county of Chester, 5¾ miles NW by W from Macclesfield.

Church Records
Chorley St Philip parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have online indexes by the following groups:

Chorley is a Chapelry near Macclesfield. A township in Wilmslow created a parish in 1855.

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

Parish registers for Chorley Chapelry near Macclesfield, 1853-1924 Cheshire Record Office no.: P199/1, P199/3254/1, P199/3255/1.

Bishop's transcripts for Chorley, 1853-1900 Cheshire Record Office: EDB 63.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1671-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

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)
 * Macclesfield (1937-74)
 * Macclesfield (1974-98)
 * Cheshire East (1998-2007)
 * Cheshire (2007-09)
 * Cheshire East (2009+)

Poor Law Unions
Macclesfield

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