Flintshire, Wales Genealogy

WalesFlintshire

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

Historic Flintshire
Flintshire (Welsh: Sir y Fflint) was one of thirteen historic counties of Wales. It was notable as having several exclaves and being the smallest county in Wales. It was a maritime county bounded to the north by the Irish Sea, to the east by the Dee estuary, to the south-east by Cheshire (England) and to the south and west by Denbighshire. The largest of its exclaves, the Maelor Saesneg (the English speaking Maelor), was bounded on the west by Denbighshire, on the east by Cheshire (England), and on the south by Shropshire (England). Other exclaves of Flintshire included the manors of Marford and Hoseley, Abenbury Fechan and Bryn Estyn, all on the outskirts of Wrexham in Denbighshire, and also a small part of the parish of Erbistock in Denbighshire. Additionally, a small part of Flintshire, including the village of Sealand, was isolated across the River Dee when its course was changed to improve navigation.

The county was formed in 1284 under the terms of the Statute of Rhuddlan and included the cantrefi (hundreds) of Tegeingl and the Maelor Saesneg formerly parts of the Welsh kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys Fadog. It included the Lordships of Mold, Hawarden, Mostyn and Hope.

The county town was Mold.

Chapman Code: FLN

1974-1996 Clwyd
Under the Local Government Act 1972, the county of Flintshire was abolished for both local government and ceremonial purposes on April 1, 1974. All of Flintshire became part of the newly formed county of Clwyd, which covered the whole of north-east Wales.

Modern Flintshire
Following further local government reorganisation, the county of Clwyd was itself abolished and the present county of Flintshire was created on April 1, 1996. This covers a substantially different area from the old county of Flintshire however. The former exclave of Maelor Saesneg became part of the newly formed county borough of Wrexham and the north-west districts of the old county of Flintshire, including Prestatyn, Rhyl and St Asaph became part of the newly created county of Denbighshire. Mold continued to be the county town.

Parishes

 * See a list of the parishes in Flintshire with links to their pages.
 * Interactive map of Flintshire Parishes.

Topics

 * Flintshire Nonconformist Records
 * Flintshire Poor Law Unions
 * Cemeteries for Flint

Research tools

 * The North Wales BMD. A searchable index of births marriages and deaths within the county of Flintshire from 1837 to around 1950.
 * Wrexham Open Church Network Graveyard Search. Currently available for Bangor is y Coed (St. Dunawd's Church), Bettisfield (St. John the Baptist`s Church), Hanmer (St Chad's Church) and Tallarn Green (St Mary Magdalene's Church).

Websites

 * Flintshire Resources and Help pages RootsChat Flintshire Resources and Help pages. (Free).
 * NorthWalesBMD indexes 1837-1950
 * NorthWalesBMD indexes 1837-1950
 * Clwyd Family History Society
 * Rootsweb Flintshire board
 * BBC Wales north-east genealogy