Liverpool, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Liverpool history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records. See the ancient parish of Liverpool St Peter and St Nicholas, Lancashire Genealogy page for a full list of links to important Liverpool records/resources.



History
The picture above shows the world famous waterfront of Liverpool;, with the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building, and the Port of Liverpool Authority Building, as shown left to right. Departing the dock is one of the iconic Mersey Ferry boats.

Liverpool is a major port in North West England, and is on the right bank of the River Mersey. It has bee a settlement for at least 800 years.

The history of Liverpool can be traced back to 1190 when the place was known as 'Liuerpul', possibly meaning a pool or creek with muddy water, though other origins of the name have been suggested.

The borough was founded by royal charter in 1207, but Liverpool remained a small settlement until its trade with Ireland and coastal parts of England and Wales was overtaken by trade with Africa and the West Indies, which included the slave trade. The town's first wet dock was opened in 1715 and Liverpool's expansion to become a major city continued over the next two centuries.

By the start of the nineteenth century, a large volume of trade was passing through Liverpool. In 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened. The population grew rapidly, especially with Irish migrants; by 1851, one quarter of the city's population was Irish-born. As growth continued, the city became known as "the second city of the Empire", and was also called "the New York of Europe". During the Second World War, the city was the centre for planning the crucial Battle of the Atlantic, and suffered a blitz second only to London's.

From the mid-twentieth century, Liverpool's docks and traditional manufacturing industries went into sharp decline, with the advent of containerization making the city's docks obsolete. The unemployment rate in Liverpool rose to one of the highest in the UK. Over the same period, starting in the early 1960s, the city became internationally renowned for its culture, particularly as the center of the "Merseybeat" sound which became synonymous with The Beatles. In recent years, Liverpool's economy has recovered, partly due to tourism as well as substantial investment in regeneration schemes. The city was a European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Cemeteries (Civil)
Below is a list of non-parish church cemeteries in Liverpool.


 * Anfield cemetery - 236 Priory Rd, Phone: +44 151 233 3004
 * Toxteth Park Cemetery - Liverpool, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 233 3004
 * West Derby Cemetery - Liverpool L11 2, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 546 2128
 * Kirkdale Cemetery - Liverpool, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 233 3004
 * Everton Cemetery - Liverpool L9 7, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 233 3004
 * Walton Park Cemetery - Liverpool, No Phone number available.
 * Yewtree Cemetery - Liverpool, No phone number available.
 * Allerton Cemetery - 192 Woolton Rd, Allerton L19 5NF, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 233 3004
 * Bootle Cemetery - Linacre Ln, Bootle, United Kingdom, Phone:+44 151 924 5143
 * Huyton Parish Cemetery - Derby Rd, Liverpool L36 9XJ, United Kingdom, No phone number available.
 * Liverpool Jewish Cemetery - Dean Road, Liverpool L7 2RN, No phone number available

Other websites listing cemeteries:
 * Deceased Online
 * Findagrave

Parishes
To help search for ancestors' records, the following Comprehensive List of Liverpool St Peter's Parishes and Chapelries has been compiled here:


 * Liverpool St Peter and St Nicholas
 * Liverpool All Saints Great Nelson St - 1835
 * Liverpool, All Saints Grosvenor - 1798 (closed in 1845)
 * Liverpool All Souls Vauxhall - 1853
 * Liverpool Blessed Virgin Mary - 1829
 * Liverpool Christ Church, Hunter St - 1799
 * Liverpool Holy Innocents
 * Liverpool Holy Trinity – 1792
 * Liverpool, Mariner's Church - 1827
 * Liverpool, St Alban's – 1846 (a.k.a. Bevington Church)
 * Liverpool, St Andrew's - 1815
 * Liverpool, St Anne's, Richmond - 1773
 * Liverpool, St Barnabas – 1841
 * Liverpool, St Bartholomew's – 1841
 * Liverpool, St Bride's - 1831
 * Liverpool, St Catherine's - 1831
 * Liverpool, St David's - 1827
 * Liverpool, St George's - 1734
 * Liverpool, St John's - 1767
 * Liverpool St John the Evangelist - 1836
 * Liverpool, St Luke's - 1831
 * Liverpool, St Mark's - 1815
 * Liverpool, St Martin-in-the Fields - 1829
 * Liverpool St Martin Cemetery
 * Liverpool St Mary's Cemetery
 * Liverpool St Mary
 * Liverpool, St Mary-for-the-Blind Church - 1829
 * Liverpool, St Mary Magdalen - 1858
 * Liverpool, St Mathias' - 1834
 * Liverpool, St Matthew's - 1798
 * Liverpool, St Michael's - 1826
 * Liverpool St Nicholas, 1659 - united with Liverpool St Peter in 1838
 * Liverpool, St Paul's - 1769
 * Liverpool, St Peter's - 1704
 * Liverpool, St Philip's - 1817
 * Liverpool, St Saviour's - 1841
 * Liverpool, St Silas' - 1841
 * Liverpool, St Simon's - 1827
 * Liverpool, St Stephen's - 1792
 * Liverpool, St Thomas' - 1750
 * Liverpool, St Thomas' - 1750

Also part of the civil parish of Liverpool are the following district chapelries, which formed the southern suburb of and also within the boundaries of Liverpool St Peter and St Nicholas:


 * Toxteth Park All Saints - 1885
 * Toxteth Park Christ Church - 1871
 * Toxteth Park Holy Trinity - 1859
 * Toxteth Park St Barnabas - 1841
 * Toxteth Park St Bede - 1882
 * Toxteth Park St Brides - 1831
 * Toxteth Park St Clement - 1841
 * Toxteth Park St Cleopas Mission Church - 1866
 * Toxteth Park St Gabriel - 1885
 * Toxteth Park St James - 1775
 * Toxteth Park St Clement - 1841
 * Toxteth Park St John the Baptist - 1832
 * Toxteth Park St Margaret - 1869
 * Toxteth Park St Matthew - 1848 (chapelry registers are only available at the Manchester Central Library)
 * Toxteth Park St Michael in the Hamlet - 1815 (extra parochial)
 * Toxteth Park St Nathaniel - 1869 (mostly in West Derby Parish)
 * Toxteth Park St Paul - 1848
 * Toxteth Park St Philemon - 1873
 * Toxteth Park St Saviour - 1841
 * Toxteth Park St Silas - 1865
 * Toxteth Park St Thomas-in-the-Fields - 1843 (chapelry registers are only available at the Liverpool Record Office)

Due to its close proximity, see also Walton-on-the-Hill Parish and its chapelries, i.e. Everton.

Nonconformists
Catholic Church Records
 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)
 * 1813-1926 Liverpool, England, Catholic Confirmations, 1813-1926 at Ancestry — index & images, ($)
 * 1741-1919 Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1741-1919 at Ancestry — index & images, ($)
 * 1754-1933 Liverpool, England, Catholic Marriages, 1754-1933 at Ancestry — index & images, ($)
 * 1813-1985 Liverpool, England, Catholic Burials, 1813-1985 at Ancestry — index & images, ($)

Liverpool also had inordinately large Irish population, many of which were Roman Catholic. By 1831, Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England (published 1831) identified that there were at least five Roman Catholic parishes lying within its boundaries. Here is a list all those known Roman Catholic churches within the boundaries of the city--including ten (10) of them; the Family History Library has a few of them (see hyper-links below); there were, prior to 1900, nearly 40 Catholic parishes within Liverpool proper:


 * St Alban - 1807
 * St Anne
 * St Ethelburga - 1843
 * St Nicholas - 1813 (some burials)
 * St Anthony - 1804 (see also St Anthony's website for some data online)
 * St Peter – 1788
 * St Mary, Woolton – 1707
 * St Swithin - 1758
 * St Patrick - 1827
 * St Joseph - 1798

Other non-Church of England denominations in Liverpool also include the following non-exclusive list:


 * Baptist
 * Chinese Christian Disciples Church
 * Christians
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 1837
 * Christian Fellowship
 * Christ Embassy Church
 * Eliim New Anointing Church
 * Jesus Army Church
 * Jewish
 * Moravian/United Brethren
 * Plymouth Brethren
 * Presbyterian
 * Primitive Methodist
 * Roman Catholic
 * Society of Friends/Quaker
 * Tamil Christian Church
 * Temple of Praise Church
 * Unitarian
 * Wesleyan Methodist
 * Wesleyan Methodist Association
 * Wesleyan Methodist Reform

Online Church Records

Non-Conformist Church Records can be found at:


 * The Genealogist - $, index to non-conformist church records (does not include Anglican Church)

Civil Registration
Civil registration is the recording of births, marriages and deaths in England and began in 1837. Civil registration records were recorded at the local registration office and the National registration offices. If you cannot find the civil registration in one index, search the other index as they are different indexes.


 * Liverpool Register Office - Online index to birth, marriages, and deaths
 * FreeBMD - National registration office index

Local Histories

 * City of Liverpool. Selections from the Municipal Archives and Records, from the 13th to the 17th Century Inclusive by Sir James A. Picton
 * A General and Descriptive History of the Ancient and Present State by James Wallace
 * History of the Commerce and Town of Liverpool, and of the Rise of the Manufacturing Industry in the Adjoining Counties by Thomas Baines
 * A History of Liverpool by Ramsay Muir
 * The History of Liverpool : from the Earliest Authenticated Period down to the Present Times by John Corry and Thomas Troughton*
 * A History of Municipal Government in Liverpool : from the Earliest Times to the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 by Ramsay Muir
 * Memorials of Liverpool, Historical and Topographical by Sir James Allanson Picton
 * The Rise and Progress of Liverpool from 1551 to 1835 by James Touzeau
 * The Stranger in Liverpool: Or, An Historical and Descriptive View of the Town of Liverpool by Thomas Kaye

Maps and Gazetteers

 * 1851 Jurisdictions Project Interactive map of England
 * Map of Bath – Great Britain, Atlas and Index of Parish Registers on Ancestry.com
 * The place-names of the Liverpool district by Henry Harrison

Newspapers
Newspapers for Bath:
 * Richard Heaton's Index to Digitalised British and Irish Newspapers Online Beta (updated 12th September 2015).

Occupations
Initially Liverpool was the port that served the shipping needs between Ireland and England. From that beginning, Liverpool rapidly developed into a world class port. It was never a major naval port, as most of the military marine activity was centered along the south coast of England, facing Europe.

However the rapid growth of cotton growing in the American deep south, plus the need for farm labor for the sugar plantations in the Caribbean, resulted in a rapid growth in the slave trade.

The heroic lifetime work of Mr. William Wilberforce, a northern MP, resulted in the passage of a bill through the British parliament abolishing slaving, and Liverpool turned to more acceptable shipping.

From the late 1700's it became the major western European port for emigrants from Northern Europe to travel to the New World. In fact this shipping industry became so important that there is now a statue memorializing this activity at the Albert Dock entrance.

Societies
Liverpool and the county of Lancashire have a number of Family History and Genealogy Societies. The following web sites provide access to these records:


 * Liverpool and South West Lancashire Genealogy Society


 * The Liverpool Family History Center


 * Liverpool genealogy


 * Liverpool Genealogy Forum


 * Liverpool Genealogy on Ancestry.com

Archives
Liverpool City  Central Library, Archives section William Brown Street, L3 8EW Telephone: +44 0151 233 3069.
 * Liverpool City Archives Office