Woodchurch, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
WOODCHURCH (Holy Cross), a parish, in the union, and Lower division of the hundred, of Wirral, South division of Cheshire; with the townships of Arrowe, Barnston , Landican , Noctorum , Oxton , Pensby , Prenton , Thingwall , and part of Irby.

Woodchurch, Holy Cross (Church of England). An ancient parish church, originally serving the townships of Arrowe, Barnston, Claughton cum Grange (part), Irby (part), Landican, Noctorum, Oxton, Pensby, Prenton, Thingwall and Woodchurch.

The cross probably stood intact in the graveyard until the 17th century when many such crosses were destroyed by the Puritans it has been said. In the 14th century the south aisle, chancel and tower were added. The south aisle was rebuilt in the 16th century and a south porch was added. Heavy diagonal buttresses were added to the tower in 1675. The vestry was built in 1766. The north aisle by Hubert Worthington was added in 1964–65.

From the Ancient parish two later parishes were created:


 * Barnston, Christ Church (C of E). The parish church since 1880.
 * Pensby, St. Michael and All Angels (C of E). Founded 1958 as a chapel to Barnston. Registers of Baptisms from 1958 and Marriages from 1964 are held at the church.

Church records
Woodchurch 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 Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Woodchurch, St. Michael & All Angels (Roman Catholic). Founded 1952.
 * Woodchurch, Methodist Chapel. Founded 1957, Built in 1963.

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

 * Wirral (1837–1974)
 * Birkenhead (1974–1998)
 * Wirral (post 1998)

Poor Law Unions

 * Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire

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

Websites
Woodchurch on GENUKI