Flintshire, Wales Genealogy

Wales 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

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.

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.

Topics

 * Flintshire Nonconformist Records
 * Flintshire Poor Law Unions

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).

Jurisdictions

 * Hamlet
 * Parish: an area of varying size under the responsibility of a clergyman of the Church of England/Church in Wales
 * Hundred: an administrative subdivision of a county, usually a group of two or more parishes
 * Sub-district: comprised of more than one civil parish
 * Registration District
 * Poor Law Union
 * Archdeaconry
 * Diocese
 * County

Did You Know?
John Parry (10 February, 1789 – 13 January, 1868) was the first musical conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Parry was born in Newmarket (now known as Trelawnyd) in Flintshire. In 1849, Parry and about 100 Welsh Mormons sailed from Liverpool to the USA. Parry died in Salt Lake City in 1868 and is buried there.

Useful websites

 * NorthWalesBMD indexes 1837-1950


 * more Flintshire websites ...