Why the Comprehensive Lists are Important to Researchers

Lancashire ancestral research presents some of the most complex and challenging counties in of all research problems. This is one of England's most populated counties, and by the mid-18th century it was at its height in England's Industrial Revolution. In droves, hordes of England's local populace from surrounding and far-away counties came to settle within its borders. From a basically agricultural county, Lancashire grew exponentially into England's major manufacturing centre.

As a result of this sudden population explosion, authorities within the Church of England were constantly assessing, devising and drawing up boundary lines for new ecclesiastical parishes. For nearly a century and a half, Lancashire's civil parishes were continually being subdivided into new ecclesiastical units called Chapelries. Lancashire's former tapestry of its ancient parishes, instead had now become dotted with four to five time's it's number, in Chapelries. Some of Lancashire's largest township parishes had as many as 30 plus Chapelries within its boundaries, for example, Rochdale parish with nearly 15 Chapelries, and Liverpool with about 48 Chapelries within their parish boundaries.

Herein lies the problem and the challenge to most Lancashire researchers: "My ancestor was born in Rochdale but I searched the ancient parish of St. Chad's Rochdale and his baptism was not found there. So I'm going to select the next parish to search to find him." There's a fallacy in this thinking and method! Hence, in especially Lancashire research what easily gets ignored are the 14 or 15 Chapelries that were all part of and within the boundaries all Rochdale, or, the 48 or 49 Chapelries within the boundaries and Liverpool. ALL Chapelries associated with each of Lancashire's ancient parishes must be searched in order to conduct thorough genealogical research in this county--whether it's 1 or 2, or 48 or 49 chapelries! To neglect researching even ONE chapelry is to short shrift your family's genealogical research and thus compromises proper standards in your research procedure.