Thurstaston, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
THURSTASTON (St. Bartholomew), is a parish, in the union, and Lower division of the hundred, of Wirral, South division of the county of Chester, it is 2½ miles SSW from Upton; containing, with part of the townships of Greasby and Irby. The former church, was taken down, and then built in 1825.

Thurstaston St Bartholomew is an Ancient parish which included Greasby and Irby.

The earliest mention of a Church occurs around 1125 but other evidence suggests that one may have existed in Saxon times. The Norman church endured for many hundreds of years but was eventually taken down in 1820 and a second edifice, a plain stone building, was completed in 1824.

Thurstaston means "village of a man called Thorsteinn / Þorsteinn", from the Old Norse personal name Thorsteinn / Þorsteinn and Old English tún "farm, village". A record of the name as Torstestiune in 1048 proves this origin. The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Turstanetone. Historically and popularly, the name was wrongly thought to refer to "Thor's Stone", a sandstone outcrop on Thurstaston Common. This local red Sandstone provided the material for the two nineteenth century churches.

Church Records
Thurstaston St Bartholomew parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Parish registers for Thurstaston, 1706-1946 Cheshire Record Office Call number: P48/1/1-2, P48/2, P48/3/1-2, P48/5693.

Bishop's transcripts for Thurstaston, 1587-1895 Records are not arranged in strict chronological order. Some intermittent years are missing. Cheshire Record Office Call number: EDB/201

Non-Conformist Churches

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images
 * 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

 * Wirral (1837–1974)
 * Birkenhead (1974–98)
 * 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
Thurstaston on GENUKI