Garstang, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Garstang, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records. See a List of Chapels and Chapelries in the Parish of Garstang

Parish History
Garstang is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Lancashire.

Other places in the parish include: Bilsborough, Billisborrow, Cabus, Catteral, Catterall, Claughton, Cleveley, Forton, Holleth, Kirkland, Nateby, Nether Wyresdale, Winmarleigh, Barnacre with Bonds, Barnacre with Ronds, and Bilsborrow.

The church of St Helen in located in the township of Churchtown (formerly Kirkland) about 2 miles south of the main village of Garstang.

The oldest part of the Church of St Helen dates back to around 1200 AD and the near circular shape of the building suggests that it is possibly a pre-Christian site. The first minister was appointed in 1190. The oldest date stone is 1632. St Helen has been referred to as ‘The Cathedral of the Fylde‘

The first Chapel of Ease was built in 1327 on a site to the rear of the High Sreet; this was demolished and replaced by a new chapel in 1770. It occupies a plot in present day Church Street, which until then had been known as Tythe Barn Lane. It was first known as "All Saints Chapel,of Ease" and became St Thomas' Church in 1848. The Parish was established in 1881 as a separate entity to St Helens Church at Churchtown, some two miles to the SW of the town, and the main Anglican Church in the area for centuries. The graveyard at St Thomas's was first used in 1849, and extended in 1955.

"GARSTANG St Helen, a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Amounderness, N. division of the county of Lancaster; comprising the townships of Barnacre with Bonds, Billisborrow, Cabus, Catterall, Claughton, Cleveley, Forton, Garstang, Holleth, Kirkland, Nateby, Pilling, Winmarleigh, and Nether Wyersdale; and containing 7659 inhabitants, of whom 909 are in the town, 11 miles south by east of Lancaster."

The church is...about two miles from the town, in that part of the parish called Garstang Church-Town, in the township of '''Kirkland.  There is a chapel within Garstang Town and at Pilling''' is a third church, an ancient chapel of ease established at least by the year 1630.

The Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics each built a place of worship, here.

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

Church records

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

Online Records

The parish of St Helen's Garstang (with parish registers commencing in the year 1563) has much online data which is now accessible to view and not only for its own parish registers but for many of its attached chapelries as well. These parish and chapel registers are now available for the following range of years:

Parish registers for St. Helen's Church, Garstang Microfilm of original records at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Lancashire Record Office no. : PR 2398-2425; 2432; 2963/1-2; 3239/1,3,5

Baptisms and burials 1567-1780 Marriages 1567-1754 FHL BRITISH Film 1278942 Items 14-24 Baptisms and burials 1780-1862 Marriages 1754-1856 Register of affidavits of burials in Woollen 1678-1691 Banns 1780-1872 Register of memo of baptisms and 1819-1825 burials 1835-1852 Draft burials and baptisms 1768-1783 FHL BRITISH Film 1278886 Marriages 1856-1900 Banns 1873-1900 Register of confirmations 1838-1900 FHL BRITISH Film 1278890 Items 1-4

Bishop's transcripts for St. Helen's Church, Garstang Microfilm of originals at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Some parts are illegible due to torn pages, dark spots, faded ink. DRB 2/76-88

Parish registers of St Thomas Garstang Microfilm of original records at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Contains baptisms and marriages 1881-1900; burials 1840-1900; copy of baptism registers 1824-1858; Statistics and communicants 1847-1851; memorandum book (baptisms) 1858-1881. Lancashire Record Office no. : PR 3240/1/1, 3, 6, 14-15

Parish registers FHL BRITISH Film 1470930 Items 20-24

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

Poor Law Unions
Garstang 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

Websites
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53240&amp;strquery=garstang British History online