Chester, Cheshire Genealogy

EnglandCheshire Cheshire ParishesChester

Parish History
In 1870 - CHESTER, a city and two sub-districts in Great Boughton district, Cheshire; and a diocese in Cheshire and part of Lancashire. The city stands on the river Dee and on the Via Devana, 5 miles SE of the head of the Dee's estuary, and 16, through Birkenhead, SSE of Liverpool. The places of worship within the city, in 1851, were 15 of the Church of England; 17 of dissenters; and 3 of other bodies. In 1869, besides the cathedral and some in the suburban parts, the Church of England, English Presbyterians, independents, Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians, Wesleyans, N. Methodists, P. Methodists, Welsh Calvinists, and Roman Catholics. The livings in the city, or connected with it, are the rectories of, St. Peter, and Holy Trinity; the vicarages of St. John the Baptist, St. Oswald, Lache-with-Saltney, and Bruera; and the p. curacies of Little St. John, St. Paul, and Christ-Church. St. Martin is annexed to St. Bridget; St. Olave to St. Michael; Upton to St. Mary. on-the-Hill.

Church records
Chester parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

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.

The individual parishes within Chester:


 * Chester Cathedral
 * Chester Holy Trinity
 * Chester St Bridget
 * Chester St John the Baptist
 * Chester St Mary
 * Chester St Michael
 * Chester St Olave
 * Chester St Oswald
 * Chester St Peter
 * Chester Little St John
 * Chester Christ Church
 * Chester St Paul
 * Chester St Barnabas

Bennett collection, ca.1252-1955 Authors Bennett, J. H. E. (John Henry Elliot), 1873- (Main Author) Broster, John Lawson, P. H. Richards, Raymond Of interest to Cheshire generally but specific Chester content includes:

On-line transcripts for the parishes of Chester St. John and Chester St Mary are available at Cheshire Parish Register project

Non Conformist Churches
Chester, St. Werburgh (Roman Catholic), Grosvenor Park Road. Built in 1875, replacing Queens Street Chapel (built c.1800). Registers of baptisms 1794–1956, marriages 1827–1973 and burials 1861–1923 are at the Cheshire Record Office. Indexes to baptisms 1790–1956 are at the Cheshire Record Office.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage and death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 * Great Boughton

Poor Law Unions

 * Chester Incorporation Poor Law union

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

see also England Cheshire Probate Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)

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