England, Cheshire, School Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

England Cheshire

What is in the Collection?
This collection consists of school records from the county of Cheshire for the years 1796 to 1950. These records contain about 1.9 million names from 120 schools. For a list of the schools included in this collection see the wiki article Schools Included in the Online Collection: England, Cheshire, School Records, 1796-1950.

Schools for the working class were organized by churches in England, primarily by the Church of England in the early nineteenth century. In 1870, the British government took responsibility for education, and by 1880 school was required for children between 5 and 10 years old. The age of mandatory attendance was raised to 12 in 1899, to 14 in 1918, and to 15 in 1948. Between World War I and World War II, working class children attended elementary schools, middle class children attended grammar schools, and upper class children attended public schools.

The school registers for Cheshire were used to keep track of children who were admitted. They tracked age, name, and address of the parent; name of the previous school the child attended; the child’s academic progress; and the date and reason for the child’s withdrawal from the school. The school admission and discharge registers were highly reliable sources about a student’s admission and discharge, and, where recorded, his or her academic progress. The child's name, parent’s names, and place of residence should also be highly reliable. During the indexing process some indexers used the information in the age column for a birth date. Therefore, some information that was entered in the birth field may be incorrectly listed in the index.

One of the 39 historic counties of England, Cheshire is a coastal county in northwestern England which shares its western border with Wales. For a list of the parishes which historically made up this county with links to more information about each of them, see the Cheshire Parishes page.

Collection Content
The records in this collection are almost universally school admission records, with certain other records appearing very infrequently.

What Can This Collection Tell Me?
School Records may contain:
 * Admission number
 * Date of admission or re-admission
 * Date of birth
 * Surname
 * Given name of child and parent
 * Address
 * Name of last school attended
 * Academic progress
 * Date of withdrawal
 * Cause of withdrawal

How Do I Search the Collection?
Before beginning a search in these records, it is best to know the full name of the individual in question, as well as an approximate time range for the desired record. When entered into the search engine on the Collection Page, this information provides the quickest, most reliable path to finding the correct person. Of course, other information can be substituted as necessary.

Search by Name by Visiting the Collection Page
Fill in the requested information in the initial search page to return a list of possible matches. Compare the individuals on the list with what is already known to find the correct family or person. This step may require examining multiple individuals before a match is located.

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images of digitized records available for all users. However, the rights to view images on this website are ultimately granted by the record custodians. Due to their restrictions, the images in this collection are not available for general viewing, but may be accessed by registered FamilySearch Patrons. Registration for a free FamilySearch account can be done here.

For additional information about image restrictions, please see the Restrictions for Viewing Images in FamilySearch Historical Record Collections page.

I Found the Person I Was Looking for, What Now?

 * Make sure to fully transcribe and cite the record entry for future reference; see below for assistance in citing this collection. Save or print a copy of the image if possible.
 * Use the information which has been discovered to find more. For instance, use the estimated age to calculate an approximate year of birth, if that is yet undetermined.
 * Use the information which has been discovered to find the individual in other records. Particularly useful for research in nineteenth-century Cheshire are the England Census, Civil Registration, and Cheshire Parish Records.
 * Continue to search the index to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives.

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * When looking for a person with a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which individual is correct. Use other information, such as place of birth, age, or names of parents, to determine which candidate is the correct person.
 * Check for variants of given names, surnames, and place names. Transcription errors could occur in any handwritten record; also, it was not uncommon for an individual be listed under a nickname or an abbreviation of their name. See Abbreviations Found in Genealogy Records for examples of common abbreviations.
 * Vary the search terms. For example, search by either the given name or surname to return broader list of possible candidates which can then be examined for matches.
 * Search the records of nearby localities. While it was uncommon for an individual in this period to move more than about 20 miles from their place of birth, smaller relocations were not uncommon. For this particular collection, this step may require finding records in the bordering English counties of Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire or Shropshire to the south, or in the Welsh counties of Denbighshire and Flintshire to the west.
 * Look at the actual image of the record to verify the information found in the online description, if possible.

For additional help searching online collections see FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

Citing this Collection
Citing sources correctly makes it easier to refer back to information that has already been discovered; proper citations are therefore indispensable to keeping track of genealogical research. Following established formulae in formatting citations also allows others to verify completed research by helping them find and examine records for themselves.

To be of use, citations must include information such as the author, custodian, publisher, and archive for the original records, if available. The following examples demonstrate how to present this information for both this particular collection as well as individual records within the collection:

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):