Lancashire, England Genealogy

England

Lancashire, is a maritime county located in the North West of England. It is sometimes called the County of Lancaster.

By 1850 Lancashire was '''comprised of only 75 ancient parishes, each with mostly large boundaries. However, with over 400 smaller chapels in Lancashire (called chapelries, chapels of ease, district chapels or ecclesiastical churches), most parishes on average had 8 chapels which sub-divided them''. '

Each chapel of ease possesses 'parish' registers of baptisms, and (where extant) marriages and burials of their own, and many of them, from ancient times.

You can click The Parishes A-Z link or, The Chapelries A-Z below it, to find your Lancashire church. On most parish pages you can find (click) a link to view a "Comprehensive List" of Chapels attached to each ancient parish.

You can also check John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales or, Samuel A. Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England to determine whether your 'parish' was in fact a "parish" or, if it was instead a chapel of ease (chapelry) within a large parish boundary, etc.

The Chapelries (A-Z)
Because Lancashire's numerous smaller chapels of ease and district chapels makeup the vast portion of its geographical tapestry and each one possessed registers of baptisms, and sometimes marriages and burials, thorough Lancashire research especially requires comprehensive, diligent study to determine  all  chapels of ease, chapelries, district churches, and parochial chapels lying within the boundary of each ancient parish.

Lancashire contains also "parts of 4 other [border] parishes, and at least 9 extra-parochial places. Prior to 1870, the county was divided into the city of Manchester, and the boroughs of Ashton-under-Lyne, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Clitheroe, Lancaster, Liverpool, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, Salford, and Wigan, and included parts of the Cheshire boroughs of Stalybridge, Stockport, and Warrington...

Lancashire's assizes (higher courts) were held at Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester. The quarter sessions (smaller courts) were held at Lancaster, Preston, Liverpool, and Manchester.

Jurisdictions
Lancashire is one of the most complex of all England's counties. The following interactive map enables researchers to make sense of this county's jurisdictional makeup: 1851 Jurisdictions Map. If you want to know those parishes (or chapelries) immediately surrounding and contiguous to your target parish or chapel in which an ancestor possibly lived, was born or married, or to know in which diocesan court in order to search for a probate (will) record, or a marriage licence, allegation or bond, etc., 'use this map to find each parish, all (or most) of its chapelries, and jurisdictions. '

Also all the key jurisdiction levels to which each ancient (civil) parish and most chapelries (but not yet all) are attached, and of which are viewable may be located in the above Jurisdiction Map tool.

Wiki "Lancashire Parishes" Pages
''The above Maps may not list or mention your place (i.e. chapelry--especially for post-1851 Lancashire); so on the "Lancashire" main page, click "Parishes" on the left margin and click the name of the parish (see those with a double **) in which your ancestor resided. Then click the "Comprehensive List of Chapels and Churches" which more thoroughly list all chapels attached to each parish.''

In Lancashire research, idenitifying 'and then searching all chapel registers within each ancient parish--is a "must" before searching in the next contiguous ancient parish ! ''Why? Because most parishes have multiple chapelries attached to them. '

Many of chapelries sent couples off to the mother (ancient) parish for marrying, as an extremely high percentage of chapelries were never granted permission to marry (especially from 1754 to 1837), and, for their dead to be buried-- since some of them did not possess or maintain church burial grounds'.  Never search '  the next parish church's registers  unless or until you've searched all the chapels of ease's (chapelries') registers, of those chapelries lying within the target ancient parish's boundary!  For example, the ancient parish of St Chad's Rochdale has about 20 chapels and district churches attached to it, residing within its parish boundary, thus all 20 of them need to be identified and their baptisms and etc. searched before continuing the research in the next ancient parish, such as the parish of Radcliff (St Mary)!

Two great (free) resources to help you determine whether a Lancashire place was an ancient parish or a chapelry (a chapel of ease) and the name of the parish in which the chapel resided, are 1) Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England (published 1848) and 2) Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870).

Civil Registration District Jurisdictions 

When civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1837, Lancashire was divided into nearly 40 registration districts, each containing numerous parishes and their attached chapelries. View and see a list of Lancashire districts and the parishes they contain, which will help you quickly identify the correct registration district name when searching the indexes to the civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths (post-1837 to the present).

Ancient Parishes Jurisdictions
See a list of Lancashire's 75 parishes (see double asterisks) with links to articles and its 400-plus chapelries.

Probate Court Jurisdictions
Read more about Lancashire Probate Records.

Before 1858, every town and parish in Lancashire was under the probate jurisdiction of a primary court and one or more secondary courts. To see a list of Lancashire parishes and the pre-1858 courts that had probate jurisdiction over them, go to Lancashire Probate Records.

You will find for any given place name, all of the jurisdiction levels and more, in the above map.

Useful Resources
Raymond, Stuart A. Lancashire: a genealogical bibliography, vol. 1, Lancashire genealogical sources. Birmingham [England]: Federation of Family History Societies, c 1996-1997.

Raymond, Stuart A. Lancashire: a genealogical bibliography, vol. 2. Registers, inscriptions and wills. Birmingham [England]: Federation of Family History Societies, c 1996-1997.

Raymond, Stuart A. Lancashire: a genealogical bibliography, vol. 3. ''Lancashire family histories and pedigrees. ''Birmingham [England]: Federation of Family History Societies, c 1996-1997.

Useful Websites

 * Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerks Links to extracted data from many of the parishes in Lancashire.
 * GENUKI UK &amp; Ireland Genealogy
 * Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths
 * Lancashire, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 (£). 931,033 entries.
 * Lancashire, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1911 (£). 850,138 entries.
 * Lancashire, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1986 (£). 441,009 entries.
 * Lancashire, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 (£). 645,187 entries.
 * Lancashire, England, Confirmations, 1856-1922 (£). 3,807 entries.
 * Liverpool burials online
 * Liverpool church register transcripts at Lanc OPC
 * Manchester burials online
 * Manchester church register transcripts online at Lanc-OPC
 * Manchester Roman Catholic Registers transcripts
 * Roman Catholic marriages, baptisms and burials
 * England, Lancashire, Oldham Cemetery Registers (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * FHLFavorites.info an extensive list of web sites and/or web pages for Lancashire and many of its parishes (search for links not only on the local level but at the county [Lancashire] and national [England] levels as well

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

England, Lancashire, Oldham Cemetery Registers (FamilySearch Historical Records)