West Mersea, Essex Genealogy

Guide to West Mersea, Essex ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
West Mersea or Mersea (West), is a parish in Lexden district, county of Essex. It is 5½ miles WSW of Brightlingsea railway station and 8 miles S W of Colchester. It comprises the western part of Mersea Island, and there is a post office under Colchester. There are chapels for Independents and Wesleyans.

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
West Mersea parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office for St Peter and Paul See also West Mersea Congregational church.

Essex Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Non-conformist Churches

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images
 * 1613-1971 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions

 * Lexden and Winstree Poor Law Union, Essex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex 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

Websites
Essex Ancestors - offers images of genealogical records for the county of Essex