Davenham, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
DAVENHAM (St. Wilfrid), is a parish, in the union and hundred of Northwich, S. division of the county of Chester; it includes the townships of Bostock, Davenham, Eaton, Leftwich, Moulton, Newhall, Rudheath, Shipbrook, Shurlach, Stanthorne, Wharton, and Whatcroft ; it is 2 miles (S.) from Northwich. The Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans, have places of worship.

The church of St. Wilfrid goes back to the Domesday period but the current edifice is the fourth on the site, dating from a major reconstruction between 1844 and 1870 in the Victorian Gothic revival style. The tower has a recessed spire built in 1850.

Legend says that the church was founded by St Wilfrid on a journey through Cheshire in the 7th Century, but the first documented evidence of a church on the site is an existing priest and church in 1086.

Davenham is recorded in the Domesday Book as Devenham. Its name means "hamlet on the River Dane". In modern times it is famous for being the Birthplace of international athlete Paula Radcliffe.

Church records
Davenham 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 Cornwall Record Office.

Non Conformist Churches

 * Davenham, Trinity Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan). Built in 1819, rebuilt in 1888.
 * Davenham, Congregational Chapel later Methodist Chapel (Primitive), Hartford Road. Built in 1852, closed in 1962. Registers of marriages 1924–1957 are at the Cheshire Record Office. Microfilm of original records at the Cheshire Record Office, Chester. Cheshire Record Office call no.: EMS 242/1.

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

 * Northwich (1837–1974)
 * Vale Royal (1974–98)
 * Cheshire Central (1998–2009)
 * Cheshire West (post 2009)registration events may be searched online at Cheshire BMD

Poor Law Unions
Northwich 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
Davenham on GENUKI