Birkenhead, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
BIRKENHEAD, is a seaport town, a market town, and a township, and seven chapelries, in the district of Wirral, Cheshire. The town stands on the Mersey, opposite Liverpool, about a mile by water W of Liverpool, and 14 3/4 miles by railway NNW of Chester. It comprises the ancient extra parochial district or chapelry of Birkenhead, the former township of Claughton in Bidstone, and part of that of Oxton in Woodchurch. They have been incorporated with the township of Birkenhead. The place was anciently called Bircheved, Birkete, Birket-wood, and Birkenhedde.

There are upward of thirty non-established places of worship (including Claughton and Oxton). There are two Roman Catholic churches. There is also a Mariners' church. The chapelries are St. Mary which was formed out of Bidston parish; St. James, Trinity, was constituted in 1841, St. Anne, St. John, were formed out of St. Mary; and St. Paul was formed out of Bebington. Trinity; St. Anne, in 1847.

Church Records
Birkenhead 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.

Bishop's Transcripts are online in Family Search Historical Records.

St. Oswald Bidston. The ancient parish church for Birkenhead. Birkenhead St Mary - 1719

Birkenhead Holy Trinity - 1841

Birkenhead St Anne - 1847

Birkenhead St James - 1841


 * Birkenhead, St. John the Evangelist (C of E), Grange Road. A separate parish from 1859; closed in 1971. Registers of Baptisms 1859–1971 and Marriages 1859–1968 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead, St. Paul (C of E), Argyle Street. Built in 1864 as a chapel to St John, becoming a separate parish in 1922; closed in 1948. Registers of Baptisms 1863–1948 and Marriages 1864–1948 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead, St. Peter (C of E), Cathcart Street. Built in 1867 as a chapel to Holy Trinity, becoming a parish church the following year. Registers of Baptisms 1867–1991 and Marriages 1868–1991 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Claughton, Christ Church (C of E). Serving part of Birkenhead from 1876.


 * Birkenhead All Saints - 1879


 * Birkenhead, St. Matthew (C of E), Park Road East. Built in 1882 in Claughton Road as a chapel to Holy Trinity; rebuilt in 1889 on Park Road East, becoming a separate parish in 1914; closed in 1970. Registers of Baptisms 1889–1969 and Marriages 1914–1969 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead, St. Bede (C of E), Built in 1888 in Park Road West as a chapel to Claughton, Christ Church, becoming a chapel to Birkenhead All Saints in 1911. Closed in 1941 after air-raid damage, and replaced by a new building in Upton Road in 1960 which has been attached to St James since the closure of All Saints in 1971. Registers of Baptisms 1888–1907 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead, St. Mark (C of E), Devonshire Road. Built in 1891 as a chapel to St John, becoming a separate parish in 1922; closed in 1991. Registers of Baptisms 1894–1991 and Marriages 1895–1990 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead Priory, Christ the King (C of E). Church Street. Opened in 1974 to replace St. Mary's as the parish church. Registers of Baptisms and Marriages are still at the church (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead St Winifred's - 1891

Here is a list of parish registers on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Parish registers for St. John's Church, Birkenhead, 1859-1946 Cheshire Record Office call no.: P 106/1/1-8, P 106/2/1-5, P106/3.

Parish registers for St. Paul's, Birkenhead, 1863-1948 Cheshire Record Office call no.: P 71/1/1-8, 2/1-5.

Parish registers for St. Peter's Church, Birkenhead, 1867-1957

Parish registers for St. Matthew's, Birkenhead, 1889-1954 Cheshire Record Office call no.: P 104/1/1-5, 2/1-6, 3/1.

Parish registers for St. Mark's Church, Birkenhead, 1894-1948 Cheshire Record Office call no.: P164/1, P164/2/1-5, P164/2953/2.

Non-Conformist Records
Here is a list of Church records on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Church records for Oxton Catholic Church, 1909-1971 Cheshire Record Office call no.: ERC 29/5477/1-2.

Church records for the Brunswick Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Birkenhead, 1830-1958

Church records for the Claughton Road United Methodist Chapel, Birkenhead, 1864-1938 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 132/1/1-3, EMS 132/7/1-2.

Church records for the Grange Road Primitive Methodist Chapel, Birkenhead, 1886-1958

Brunswick Chapel Wesleyan Methodist Church records, 1830-1837 Microfilm of original records at the Public Record Office, London.

Palm Grove Chapel Oxton, Cheshire Wesleyan Methodist Church records, 1858-1887 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 139/13

Church records Hind Street Chapel Birkenhead, Cheshire Weslayan, 1873-1965

Church records Laird Street Chapel Weslayan, 1874-1941 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 136/1

Church records Lowe Street Chapel Birkenhead Wesleyan Methodist, 1879-1957 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 137/1

Church records Mount Tabor Chapel Birkenhead Primitive Methodist, 1896-1945 Cheshire Record Office: EMS 138/1a

Church records St. Andrew's Church Birkenhead, Presbyterian, 1900-1943 Microfilm of original records at the Presbyterian Historical Society, London.

Church records Presbyterian Church Birkenhead, Cheshire, 1929-1942 Microfilm of original records at the Presbyterian Historical Society, London

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Birkenhead Branch Record of members, ca. 1852-1945 Microfilm of originals in the Church Archives, Salt Lake City.

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

 * Wirral (1837–61)
 * Birkenhead (1861–1998)
 * Wirral (post 1998)

Poor Law Unions

 * Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire (1836–61)
 * Birkenhead Poor Law Union, Cheshire (1861–1930).

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

Websites
Birkenhead on GENUKI