Downham, Lancashire Genealogy

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

Chapelry History
DOWNHAM (St Leonard) a chapelry since 1605, in the parish of Whalley, union of Clitheroe, Higher division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of the county of Lancaster,3 miles (E. N. E.) from Clitheroe. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.

Downham is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England. It is in the Ribble Valley district The village is on the north side of Pendle Hill off the A59 road about 3 miles (4.8 km) from Clitheroe.

The village is part of the Assheton Estate owned by the Lord and Lady Clitheroe, and the owners do not allow overhead electricity lines, aerials or satellite dishes, making the village a popular location for filming period dramas. Downham Village - features as "Ormston" in the BBC TV series "Born and Bred", and was also used in the 1961 film of "Whistle Down The Wind".

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

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Online Records

 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * 1603 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index and images

 Church of England 

Downham chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Whalley to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Downham and comprising the whole ancient parish of Whalley to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the WHALLEY PARISH page.

Parish registers for Downham, 1653-1900 Microfilm of original records at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Contains baptisms 1653-1887; marriages 1653-1837; banns 1884-1900; burials 1653-1812; register of services 1893-1900. Downham is a chapelry in the parish of Whalley. Lancashire Record Office no. : PR 3188/1/1-9

Bishop's transcripts for Downham, 1606-1886 Microfilm of original records at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Downham is a chapelry in the parish of Whalley Lancashire Record Office: DRB 2/244-245; DRL 2/245

Non-Conformist Churches

 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions
Clitheroe 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.

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