Manchester Parish Records

[nainmaddie]

Hi All

Is there anyone out there with some experience pre 1837 who could look something up in the Manchester Record office ? Are they available from elsewhere online ?

It would be nice if we could help someone in America on limited means to search for her ancestors.

Please help

Maddie

 

[Gerard]

Any Parish Record on film at Manchester Central Library (or any where else in the UK for that matter) should be available to order from any LDS FHC in the world for a small fee.

Sometime in the (distant) future, most if not all PRs (and many other records) held at MCL will be available online. Malcolm Twigg of the LDS was digitising images there for months earlier this year.

Gerard

 

[nainmaddie]

Hi Gerard

Thank you for your reply and information.

The lady in question lives in America, and is on limited means and I was hoping that we might find someone who could look the PR's up for her. She has used the Family Centres near her., so will tell her to keep a lookout.

I did find a marriage for her on the Familysearch site, but being so far away is not sure that it is the right one

Thank you for your reply

Maddie

 

[Gerard]

If you post the details someone might be able to take a look at it for your friend. I presume that the marriage was at the Collegiate & Parish Church of Manchester. If that is the case the details could be quite sparse. Owing to the large number of events that took place at this church, pre July 1837 records were not always completed as they should have been. Quite often one or both of the witnesses signatures were missing and of course no full addresses or details of the fathers were given. Witnesses were often minor church officials and therefore had no connection with the happy couple. It was not uncommon for the bride and groom's signatures or marks to be missing.

An account of the chaotic scenes at the Church are recorded in the book The Manchester Man. At holiday times dozens and dozens of people got married, sometimes as many as 10 or 20 couples at a time. Owing to this church's monopoly of fees in the area Joshua Brookes baptised, married and buried more people than any other cleric in the UK. There is a Manchester website which gives more details about this.

For the sake of their convenience FamilySearch refers to events at this church as being at Manchester Cathedral. The church was not elevated to cathedral status until 1847 when the Dioceses of Manchester was created.

HTH

Gerard

 

[nainmaddie]

Hello Gerard

Many thanks for that informative reply.

I found this lady's marriage request at the Cathedral although they lived in Didsbury. I will pass this information to her and if she would like to post on here, I am sure she will do so.

Many thanks
Maddie

 

[Gerard]

Something else which is explained on the website I mentioned is the fact that what was the township of Manchester and the Parish of Manchester were two different things.

The very small area of the township of Manchester was within the very large area of the parish of Manchester. The church was located in the township of Manchester. The ancient parish of Manchester covered an area of approximately 60 square miles.

Gerard

 

[marie44]

thanks you ever so much Maddie and Gerard, nobody has ever done so much just for me. i dont know how to handle it. i just dont have any information on anything over there except that everyone says the Renshaw's started in Lancashire loooooooooooong time ago.

why is he so alone? there seems to be nobody around him but him and his children. theres a one-name group over here that has done extensive research on the name of Renshaw and they tell me that none of the Renshaw's are related to me. my gawd, it hasnt been that long ago in genealogic time, why is there so much trouble? there's no trouble finding Renshaws but finding the right one.