Wirksworth, Derbyshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
WIRKSWORTH, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred, in Derbyshire. The parish contains four townships in Belper district, five in Ashborne district, and two in Bakewell district.

WIRKSWORTH (St. Mary), a market-town and parish, in the union of Belper, chiefly in the hundred of Wirksworth, but partly in that of Appletree, and partly in that of High Peak, county of Derby. This place, formerly written Wircesworth, Werchestworde, Wyrkysworth. There is also a manor within the parish, which has no courts, called the Holland, or Richmond, manor, granted in 1553, by the crown, to Ralph Gell. The parish includes the chapelries of Alderwasley and Cromford; the townships of Ashley-Hay, Biggin, Hopton, Ible, and Idridgehay with Allton; and the hamlets of Callow, Ivonbrook-Grange, and Middleton. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists.

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. John Palmer's Wirksworth website with index to St Mary's registers is engineered for searches by individual and by family. It is free and covers Wirksworth and neighboring areas up to forty miles away. 

Church Records
Wirksworth parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have online indexes by the following groups:

Derbyshire Record Office reference D3105 has deposited registers Bap 1608-1994 Mar 1608-1991 Burial 1608-1978 Banns 1754-1799, 1928-1998

Lichfield Record Office has deposited Bishop's Transcripts Bap 1698-1858 Mar 1698-1837  Burials 1698-1858

A transcription project of the Wirksworth parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts into a searchable data base was conducted by John Palmer and many transcribers, its story is here. These items were used in this project:


 * Wirksworth parish registers, Derbyshire, 1608-1837
 * An index 14 microfiches ISBN: 0953284409 Microfiche of original published: [S.l.] : John Palmer, 1998.
 * The parish church is known as St. Mary's Church. Includes a short history of Wirksworth parish.
 * Link to Transcribed Parish Records
 * Link to Monumental Inscriptions
 * Ince's Pedigrees 1600-1860
 * Churchwardens' Accounts 1658-1727
 * Parish Data not in the Parish Records 1608-1837
 * Marriage Witnesses 1754-1899

Baptisms, 1608-1899 (missing 1700-1801, 1703-1803, 1706-1806, 1710-1810); marriages, 1608-1883 (missing 1695, 1699, 1711); burials, 1608-1919 (missing 1739, 1745, 1749, 1807) are available at Family History Library, the first film # is 1041042.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint
 * General Baptist
 * Independent/Congregational
 * Primitive Methodist
 * Wesleyan Methodist

Poor Law Unions
Belper Poor Law Union, Derbyshire

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Derbyshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Courtesy of David Kiernan: Wills, Probates and Inventories 1524-1602for this area and held at the Lichfield Record Office.

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

Taxes
The Hearth Tax 1662-70: Courtesy of John Palmer of Dorset

Websites
Wirksworth on GENUKI