Wray, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Wray was created an ecclesiastical district with a chapel in 1839 from, and lying within the boundaries of Melling, Lancashire Ecclesiastical Parish.

Other places in the parish include: the hamlet of Botton.

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.

"WRAY, with Botton, a township, and an ecclesiastical district with a chapel, in the parish of Melling, hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, N. division of Lancashire, 10 miles northeast by east from Lancaster. Wray is the most populous village in the parish. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was built in 1839.

The Society of Friends and the Wesleyans have places of worship."

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
 Church of England 

Wray chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Melling 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 Wray and comprising the whole ancient parish of Melling to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the MELLING ST WILFRID PARISH page.

Poor Law Unions
Caton Gilbert 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