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Scotland Scotland  Glasgow, Lanarkshire

Guide to Glasgow, Lanarkshire history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
GLASGOW, a city, the seat of a university, and a sea-port, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the Lower ward of the county of Lanark, and situated 23 miles (E. by S.) from Greenock, 29 (S. W. by S.) from Stirling, 34 (N.E.by N.) from Ayr, 43 (W. by S.) from Edinburgh, 79 (N. N. W.) from Dumfries, 144 (S. w.) from Aberdeen, 196 (N.N.E.) from Dublin, 213 (N. W. by N.) from Manchester, and 396 (N. W. by N.) from London.

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third-largest in the United Kingdom.

Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. Expanding from the medieval bishopric and royal burgh, and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow in the fifteenth century, it became a major center of the Scottish Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. From the eighteenth century onward, the city also grew as one of Great Britain's main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America and the West Indies.

The area around Glasgow has hosted communities for millennia, with the River Clyde providing a natural location for fishing. The Romans later built outposts in the area and, to keep Roman Britannia separate from the Celtic and Pictish Caledonia, constructed the Antonine Wall. Items from the wall like altars from Roman forts like Balmuildy can be found at the Hunterian Museum today.

Glasgow itself was reputed to have been founded by the Christian missionary Saint Mungo in the 6th century. He established a church on the Molendinar Burn, where the present Glasgow Cathedral stands, and in the following years Glasgow became a religious center.

The first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the town's religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe and the Mediterranean.

Following the European Protestant Reformation and with the encouragement of the Convention of Royal Burghs, the 14 incorporated trade crafts federated as the Trades House in 1605 to match the power and influence in the town council of the earlier Merchants' Guilds who established their Merchants House in the same year. Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. Glasgow's substantial fortunes came from international trade, manufacturing and invention, starting in the 17th century with sugar, followed by tobacco, and then cotton and linen, products of the Atlantic triangular slave trade.

After the Acts of Union in 1707, Scotland gained further access to the vast markets of the new British Empire, and Glasgow became prominent as a hub of international trade to and from the Americas, especially in sugar, tobacco, cotton, and manufactured goods. The city's Tobacco Lords created a deep water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde, as the river within the city itself was then too shallow. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgow's River Clyde, with over 47,000,000 lb (21,000 t) of tobacco being imported each year at its peak. At the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton.

The opening of the Monkland Canal and basin linking to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port Dundas in 1795, facilitated access to the extensive iron-ore and coal mines in Lanarkshire. After extensive river engineering projects to dredge and deepen the River Clyde as far as Glasgow, shipbuilding became a major industry on the upper stretches of the river, pioneered by industrialists such as Robert Napier, John Elder, George Thomson, Sir William Pearce and Sir Alfred Yarrow.

By the end of the 19th century it was one of the cities known as the "Second City of the Empire" and was producing more than half Britain's tonnage of shipping, and a quarter of all locomotives in the world. In addition to its preeminence in shipbuilding, engineering, industrial machinery, bridge building, chemicals, explosives, coal and oil industries it developed as a major center in textiles, garment-making, carpet manufacturing, leather processing, furniture-making, pottery, food, drink and cigarette making; printing and publishing. Shipping, banking, insurance and professional services expanded at the same time.

The 20th century witnessed both decline and renewal in the city. After World War I, the city suffered from the impact of the Post–World War I recession and from the later Great Depression, this also led to a rise of radical socialism and the "Red Clydeside" movement. The city had recovered by the outbreak of World War II and grew through the post-war boom that lasted through the 1950s. By the 1960s, growth of industry in countries like Japan and West Germany, weakened the once preeminent position of many of the city's industries.

As a result of this, Glasgow entered a lengthy period of relative economic decline and rapid de-industrialisation, leading to high unemployment, urban decay, population decline, welfare dependency and poor health for the city's inhabitants.

By the late 1980s, there had been a significant resurgence in Glasgow's economic fortunes. The "Glasgow's miles better" campaign, launched in 1983, and opening of the Burrell Collection in 1983 and Scottish Exhibition and Conference Center in 1985 facilitated Glasgow's new role as a European center for business services and finance and promoted an increase in tourism and inward investment.

However, it is the industrial heritage that serves as key tourism enabler. Wider economic revival has persisted and the ongoing regeneration of inner-city areas, including the large-scale Clyde Waterfront Regeneration, has led to more affluent people moving back to live in the center of Glasgow, fueling allegations of gentrification. The city is now considered by Lonely Planet to be one of the world's top 10 tourist cities.

Cemeteries (Civil)
The area of Dudley and surrounding towns has a number of cemeteries. These follow:

Gornal Wood


 * Chase Rd
 * Brierley Hill
 * Dudley DY3 2RL
 * Phone: +44 1384 813970

Dudley Cemetery


 * Stourbridge Rd
 * Dudley DY1 2DA

Ruiton Cemetery


 * Duke St
 * Dudley DY3 2DJ

Quinton Cemetery


 * Halesowen Rd
 * Halesowen
 * B62 9AF
 * Phone: +44 121 472 1575

Parishes
Dudley, including the surrounding towns that are all part of the greater Wolverhampton metropolis, has a number of Anglican Churches. They follow:

St Francis Parish Church


 * Laurel Rd
 * Dudley DY1 3EZ
 * Phone: +44 1384 832164

St James' Eve Hill


 * 92 Wolverhampton St
 * Dudley DY1 3AP
 * Phone: +44 1384 214487

Holy Cross, Tividale


 * Ashleigh Rd
 * Tividale, Oldbury B69 1LL
 * Phone: +44 1384 257888

St Michael's Tividale


 * 16 Charlotte Cl
 * Tividale, Oldbury B69 2LZ
 * Phone: +44 1384 257888

For a complete list of Warwickshire parishes, please see:

Warwickshire parishes

Because Dudley is so close to Staffordshire, the following list of Staffordshire parishes might also be helpful:

Staffordshire parishes

Non Conformists
Because Dudley is now part of an extremely large urban area including Wolverhampton and all the way to Birmingham, there are a diverse number of Christian and non Christian communities. Some of these follow:


 * Apostolic Revival Center
 * Baptist
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
 * Dudley Community Church
 * Jehovah's Witness
 * Methodist
 * New Testament Church of God
 * Pentecostal
 * Primrose Hill Community Church
 * Roman Catholic
 * Salvation Army
 * Seventh Day Adventist

Additionally the following non-Christian groups have assemblies in the Dudley area:


 * Buddhist
 * Hindu
 * Muslim
 * Sikh

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths records have been kept by government since July 1837 to the present day. Prior to that, local parishes of the Church of England, and local branches of other faiths were the only repositories of this information.


 * West Midlands BMD office


 * Dudley BMD Research Office


 * BM<D Certificates: Dudley

Local Histories

 * Local Histories; Dudley


 * Dudley Borough History


 * Dudley Through Time by Peter Glews


 * Dudley and the Black Country

Maps and Gazetteers

 * Via Michelin; Dudley


 * old Dudley maps


 * oldmapsonline: West Midlands


 * Canalplan gazetteers for Dudley


 * genuki gazetteer for Dudley

Newspapers

 * The Dudley News


 * The Express and Star area newspaper for Dudley


 * The Birmingham Mail, Dudley section

Occupations
Dudley, in concert with most Black Country towns, has seen a severe downturn in its economy over the past 30+ years. Relative to the UK as a whole, Dudley unemployment stands at 6.5%, compared to the UK as a whole at 4.7%. A large proportion of the population need to travel to larger centers such as Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

Most local employment is in the retail sector, education, and local government. However there are still many small to medium sized manufacturing companies left. Many of the local businesses are small and medium sized but Dudley also has a number of large-scale employers including Sandvik, Rentokil and London & Cambridge Properties.

Due to the fact that historically the Midlands was the major UK area for car manufacturing, there are still a large number of parts manufacturers in the area.

The service sector is very strong with financial services, distribution, retail and leisure playing a significant role. The visitor economy continues to grow, and is worth around £225m and attracts over four million visitors every year.

Societies

 * Birmingham and Midlands Genealogy Society


 * Black Country Connections


 * genuki; Warwickshire

Archives

 * Dudley Archives


 * National Archives: Dudley


 * Black Country History; Dudley Archives

Web Sites

 * wikipedia; Dudley


 * Dudley Borough Council


 * Warwickshire County Council