Upper Gornal, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
Upper Gornal is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Staffordshire, created in 1844 from Sedgley, Staffordshire Ancient Parish.

GORNALL, UPPER, an ecclesiastical district, in the parish of Sedgley, union of Dudley, N. division of the hundred of Seisdon, S. division of the county of Stafford, 2 miles (N. W.) from Dudley; containing 2775 inhabitants. This place is remarkable for the extent of its stone-quarries, and for its fine brick-clay. As in Lower Gornall, the manufacture of chains and nails is carried on here extensively. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, was consecrated in July, 1843, and is a plain structure in the later English style, with turrets, built at a cost of £2389, raised by subscription, and a grant from the Incorporated Society: of 921 sittings, 645 are free. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Sedgley; net income, £150, with a parsonage-house. The Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans have places of worship. In connexion with the church is a national school.

From: 'Goodneston - Gosforth', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 315-319. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50985 Date accessed: 24 March 2011.

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.

Church records
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Census records
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Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire 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

Web sites
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