Mirfield, Yorkshire Genealogy

England Yorkshire Yorkshire Parishes K-R West Riding  Mirfield

Parish History
MIRFIELD (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Dewsbury, Lower division of the wapentake of Agbrigg, W. riding of York, 2¾ miles (W. by S.) from Dewsbury; containing 6919 inhabitants. There are places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists of the Old and New Connexions, Primitive Methodists, Baptists, Independents, Moravians,and Swedenborgians.

From: Lewis, Samuel A, A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 325-329. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51154 Date accessed: 15 September 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
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Mirfield is an 'ancient' parish (created before 1813) in the diocese of Wakefield. Church of England records for Mirfield St. Mary's survive from 1559.

The original registers are deposited at the West Yorkshire Archives in Wakefield. Microfilm/fiche copies are available at archive branches such as Leeds at Sheepscar and Kirklees in Huddersfield.

The copies made by the minister (ordered by an Act of 1598) and sent each year to the Bishop of the diocese (known as parish register transcripts or Bishop's transcripts) survive from 1600 and are deposited at the West Yorkshire Archives branch in Sheepscar, Leeds.

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has both parish registers and bishop's transcripts on microfilm for Mirfield and its chapelries, which are listed in the. Many of these records are indexed in the International Genealogical Index available online through the 'Advanced Search' at www.familysearch.org. Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, nonconformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Yorkshire 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
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.