Cheshire, England Genealogy

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Gazetteer Information

CHESHIRE, a maritime county; bounded, on the NW, by the Irish sea; on the N, by Lancashire; on the NE, by Yorkshire; on the E, by Derbyshire; on the SE, by Staffordshire; on the S, by Salop; on the SW, by North Wales...

The county contains 91 parishes, parts of 5 other parishes, and 4 extra-parochial places; is divided into the hundreds of Broxton, Bucklow, Eddisbury, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich, and Wirral, with the boroughs of Chester, Congleton, Macclesfield, and the main part of Stockport; and forms for parliamentary representation two divisions, North and South, separated chiefly by the river Weaver. The registration county... includes a parish of Stafford, two townships of Lancashire, and a parish and part of another parish of Flint; measures 692,999 acres; and is divided into the districts of Altrincham, Great Boughton, Congleton, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich, Runcorn, Stockport, and Wirrall. The market-towns are Chester, Altrincham, Congleton, Frodsham, Macclesfield, Malpas, Middlewich, Knutsford, Nantwich, Northwich, Sandbach, Stockport, and Tarporley...

The county is governed by a lord lieutenant, a high sheriff, 65 deputy lieutenants, and about 290 magistrates. The assizes are held at Chester; and quarter-sessions at Chester and Knutsford... The county, excepting part of the parish of Threapwood, is all in the diocese of Chester... The places of worship, within the county proper, in 1851 were 252 of the Church of England, 2 of United Presbyterians, 3 of English Presbyterians, 66 of Independents, 31 of Baptists, 10 of Quakers, 14 of Unitarians, 3 of Moravians, 188 of Wesleyan Methodists, 29 of New Connexion Methodists, 135 of Primitive Methodists, 50 of the Wesleyan Association, 4 of Calvinistic Methodists, 8 of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, 5 of Brethren, 7 of isolated congregations, 9 of Latter Day Saints, and 17 of Roman Catholics... Pop. in 1801, 192,305; in 1821, 270,098; in 1841, 395,660; in 1861, 505,428...

The territory now forming Cheshire belonged anciently to the British Cornavii...

The above extract is taken from: John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72).

Research Tools
The following list of records can all be found on FamilySearch Record Search (to access them, click on the link then click on the British Isles on the map):


 * Church of England burial records for Cheshire for 1538-1907
 * Church of England christening records for Cheshire for 1538-1907
 * Church of England marriage records for Cheshire for 1538-1907
 * A register of Electors of Cheshire for 1842-1900

Useful Websites
Here is a list of more websites useful for Cheshire research:


 * The GENUKI Cheshire pages
 * Cheshire on Genealogylinks.net
 * Cheshire BMD, for indexes to births, marriages, and deaths from 1837
 * The Cheshire Parish Register Project
 * The Cheshire County Council's page for family history (includes an online index to probate records for Cheshire)

Parishes
Click on a parish name to go to its page.