Denbighshire, Wales Genealogy

WalesDenbighshire

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

Historic Denbighshire
Denbighshire (Welsh: Sir Ddinbych) was one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. It was a maritime county, bounded to the north by the Irish Sea, to the east by Flintshire, Cheshire (England) and Shropshire (England), to the south by Montgomeryshire and Merionethshire, and to the west by Caernarfonshire.

The county was created following the Act of Union of 1535, between Wales and England, and was formed from the cantrefi (hundreds) of Rhos; Rhufoniog; Dyffryn Clwyd; Iâl; Nanheudwy; Cynllaith and the Maelor Gymraeg which were formerly in the Welsh kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys Fadog.

The administrative county of Denbighshire, with an elected county council, was created in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. The county was governed by an elected county council, who took over the functions of the Quarter Sessions courts. The county town was Ruthin and other main towns were Wrexham and Denbigh.

Motto: Duw A Digon (English: With God, enough).

Chapman Code: DEN

1974-1996 Clwyd


Under the Local Government Act 1972, the county and administrative county of Denbighshire were abolished, for both local government and ceremonial purposes, on April 1, 1974. Most of Denbighshire becoming part of the newly formed county of Clwyd covering the whole of north-east Wales. However, the urban district of Llanrwst and five rural parishes, became part of the newly formed county of Gwynedd which covered the whole of north-west Wales.

Modern Denbighshire


Following further local government reorganisation, the county of Clwyd was abolished on April 1, 1996 and the present-day county of Denbighshire was created. This covers a substantially different area from the historic county of Denbighshire however. The eastern part of the ancient county of Denbighshire, together with the Maelor exclave of the ancient county of Flintshire, became the newly formed County Borough of Wrexham.

Topics

 * Denbighshire Parish Registers available on-line or in print.
 * Denbighshire Burial Records available in print.
 * Denbighshire Nonconformist Records.
 * Denbighshire Archives. Details of archives covering the historic county.
 * Denbighshire Poor Law Unions

Research tools

 * The North Wales BMD. A searchable index of births marriages and deaths within the county of Denbighshire from 1837 to around 1950.
 * Nonconformist Records. Use a spreadsheet list of registers and alternate records.
 * Wrexham Cemetery burial records. On-line search for burials.
 * Wrexham Open Church Network Graveyard Search. Currently available for Marchwiel (St Marcella's Church); Holt (St Chad's Church) and Ruabon (St Mary's Church)

Parishes
See a list of the parishes in Denbighshire with links to their pages.

Websites
Cemeteries
 * Denbighshire Resources and Help pages RootsChat Denbighshire Resources and Help pages. (Free).
 * NorthWalesBMD indexes 1837-1950
 * Clwyd Family History Society (Web site)
 * Clwyd Family History Society (Facebook page)
 * Denbighshire Register Offices. Details of offices holding birth, marriage and death record from the historic county.
 * Clwyd Family History Society Resource Centre in Cefn Mawr, Wrexham.


 * Wrexham Cemeteries

Churches


 * Shropshire's Non-conformist chapels (includes some border chapels in Denbighshire)
 * Llangollen Churches &amp; Chapels

Civil Registration


 * NorthWalesBMD indexes 1837-1950
 * Wrexham Marriage Indexes 1837-1997

Genealogy


 * Clwyd Family History Society (Web site)
 * Clwyd Family History Society (Facebook page)
 * Rootsweb Denbighshire board
 * BBC Wales north-east genealogy

Local History


 * Broughton District History Group
 * Brymbo Heritage Group
 * Chirk History Society
 * Llai Local History Society
 * Wrexham Local History