Chester, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
CHESTER, a city, port, and county of itself, locally in the hundred of Broxton, S. division of the county of Chester, of which it is the capital, 17 miles S from Liverpool, 36 SW from Manchester and 197 NW from London; including those portions of the parishes of St. Mary on the Hill, St. Oswald, and the Holy Trinity, which are without the limits of the city.

The city comprises the parishes of St. Bridget; St. John the Baptist; Little St. John, extra-parochial; St. Martin; St. Michael; St. Olave; and St. Peter; and part of the parishes of St. Mary on the Hill, St. Oswald, and the Holy Trinity, and the precinct of the Cathedral Close.

The livings in the city, or connected with it, are the rectories of St Bridget, St Martin, St Peter, St Mary on the Hill, and Holy Trinity; the vicarages of St John the Baptist, St Oswald, St Michael, St Olave, Lache with Saltney, and Bruera; and the curacies of Little St John, Upton, St Paul, and Christ Church. St. Martin is annexed to St. Bridget; St. Olave to St. Michael; Upton to St. Mary-on-the-Hill. The precinct of the Cathedral Close is also there.

Here is A Comprehensive List of Chester Chapels and District Chapelries.

The places of worship within the city, in 1851, were 15 of the Church of England; 17 of dissenters; and 3 of other bodies. There is a place of worship for Church of England, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians, Wesleyans, Methodists, Welsh Calvinists, Christians, Brethren, and Roman Catholics.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Cheshire ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Cheshire ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1600s-1910 Cheshire Non-Conformist & Roman Catholic Registers (Baptism) 17th Century-1910 at Findmypast ($); index and images (dates may vary by parish)


 * 1600s-1910 Cheshire Non-Conformist & Roman Catholic Registers (Marriages) 17th Century-1910 at Findmypast ($); index and images (dates may vary by parish)


 * 1600s-1910 Cheshire Non-Conformist & Roman Catholic Registers (Burials) 17th Century-1910 at Findmypast ($); index and images (dates may vary by parish)

The following non-Church of England denominations were located somewhere in Chester, but the exact parish has not been identified:


 * Baptist
 * Presbyterian
 * Society of Friends/Quaker
 * United Presbyterian Church of Scotland
 * Chester, St. Werburgh (Roman Catholic), Grosvenor Park Road. Built in 1875, replacing Queens Street Chapel (built c.1800). Registers of baptisms 1794–1956, marriages 1827–1973 and burials 1861–1923 are at the Cheshire Record Office. Indexes to baptisms 1790–1956 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Catholic Church
 * Wesleyan
 * Wesleyan Methodist
 * Primitive Methodist
 * Congregational
 * Calvinistic Methodist

Church records for St. Francis of Assissi Catholic Church, Chester, 1859-1943 Cheshire Record Office call no.: ERC 11/5100/1-7.

Church records for St. Werburgh's Catholic Church, Chester, 1794-1993 Cheshire Record Office call no.: ERC 3/5066/1-17.

Church records for the Central Hall City Road Wesleyan Methodist chapel, Chester, 1900-1952 Cheshire Record Office call nos.: ZCR 55/2/34-36.

Church records for the City Temple, Hunter Street Primitive Methodist Chapel, Chester, 1916-1948 Cheshire Record Office call nos.: ZCR 270/7-8.

Church records for the George Street Primitive Methodist Chapel, Chester, 1917-1955 Cheshire Record Office call nos.: ZCR 270/1-4.

Church records for the Milton Green Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Chester, 1909-1954 Cheshire Record Office call nos.: ZCR 270/12, CR 55/2/88.

Church records for the Northgate Congregational Church, Chester, 1906-1953 Cheshire Record Office call nos.: ZCR 416/4-7.

Church records for the Primitive Methodist chapel, Chester, 1845-1959 Cheshire Record Office call nos.: ZCR 55/2/134-135.

Church records for the Queen Street Congregational Chapel, Chester, 1772-1923 Public Record Office call no.: RG-4 series no. 160; Cheshire Record Office call nos.: ZCR 151/1, 10, 16-17.

Church records for the Queen Street Welsh Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Chester, 1900-1965 Cheshire Record Office call nos.: CR 286/1-2.

Church records for the Tarvin Road Primitive Methodist Chapel, Chester, 1921-1948 Cheshire Record Office call nos.: ZCR 506/1-2.

Presbyterian Church records, 1651-1855 RG-4 series nos. 3755, 2090, 161.

Church records Primitive Methodist Chapel, 1825-1837. Primitive Methodist Church is on Steam Mil.l Street Microfilm of original records at the Public Record Office, London.RG-4 series no. 575.

Church records Calvinistic Methodis Octogon Chapel 1805-1835 RG-4 series no. 70.

Calvinistic Methodist Mount Zion Chapel Church records, 1805-1837 RG-4 series no. 4417.

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

 * Great Boughton

Poor Law Unions

 * Chester Incorporation Poor Law union

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
Chester on GENUKI