Bidston, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
BIDSTON or BIDSTONE, is a parish, in the union, and Lower division of the hundred of Wirral, S. division of the county of Chester; comprising the townships of Bidston with Ford, Moreton with Lingham, and Saughall Massey ; is 4 miles W by N from Birkenhead. The church is of the date 1547.

Bidston St Oswald Bidston cum Ford was a township in Bidston Parish, Wirral Hundred and included Bidston Moss and Ford.— See Mortimer’s History of the Hundred of Wirral.

The original church dates back to the 13th century. The tower was built in 1520. The rest of the church was rebuilt in 1855–56 by W. J. Hay in Gothic Revival style. An extension was made to the chancel in 1882 by G. E. Grayson.

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)
 * 1671-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)
 * Roman Catholic
 * Society of Friends/Quaker
 * Wesleyan Methodist

Non-Conformists Church records from FamilySearch Library:

Church records for the Palm Grove Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Claughton-cum-Grange 1875-1955: Marriages, 1875-1955. Film 2299418 Items 16 - 22

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

 * Wirral (1837-1861)
 * Birkenhead (1861-1933)

Poor Law Unions
Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire

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
Bidston on GENUKI