Pontefract, Yorkshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
PONTEFRACT (St.Giles), a borough, market town, and parish, in the Upper division of the wapentake of Osgoldcross, W. riding of York; comprising the townships of Carleton, East Hardwick, Monkhill, Pontefract, and Tanshelf, and the chapelry of Knottingley; and containing 9851 inhabitants, of whom 4669 are in the borough, 23 miles (S.S. W.) from York, and 177½ (N. N. W.) from London. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans, and a Roman Catholic chapel.

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.

Church Records
Online data content from chapelry registers of Pontefract exists at some of the following websites and for the specified ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Knottingley and comprising the whole ancient parish of Pontefract to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the Pontefract page.

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.

This ancient parish was created before 1813. Church of England records began in 1842.

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images

Genealogy
Neyt, E. James Kersley, M.S.M. The Temperant Colour Sergeant. Picture of the Kersley family, Pontefract. 1898 with names, and a history of the family. The hampshire Family Historian, vol. XII,no.2, August 1985, pages 97-99. Family History Library Ref. 942.27 B2h v.12

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

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