Hawkshead, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Hawkshead, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
HAWKSHEAD (St Michael), a market-town and a parish, in the union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 28 miles north by northwest of Lancaster, comprising the townships of Claife, Hawkshead, and Monk-Coniston with Skelwith, and the chapelry of Satterthwaite. Other places in the parish include: Borwick, Claife, Dale Park, Field Head, Gallowbarrow, Upper Claife, Grizedale, Hawkeshead with Monk Coniston and Skelwith, Henakin, Lower Claife, Monk Coniston and Skelwith, and Graythwaite. In the hamlet of Hawkshead Hill is a small place of worship for Baptists which began in 1709. Methodists also have a chapel, built around 1862, and Quakers by the year 1658 in Colthouse, 3-4 miles away.

Here is a list of chapelries or chapels of ease built within the boundary of Hawkshead St Michael's Parish (as of 1848; see "Church Records" below for others):



To view a further historical summary of this ancient parish, visit The Ancient Church of St Michael and All Saints page (also see the footnote below).

Cemeteries
The Family History Library's British collection has.

Civil Registration of Births, Marriages &amp; Deaths - 1837 to the Present
Read about England Civil Registration (vital records) of birth, marriages and deaths on the England main page.

Online Indexes

There are two separate (free) indexes available for Lancashire civil registration of births, marriages and deaths. One index covers all registrations nation-wide, and one index covers the copies of the local registration district office's certificate copies for all registration districts throughout Lancashire, as follows:


 * FreeBMD - an online (free) index to the certificates held at the General Registrar's Office, formerly in London, now in Solihull, Merseyside, UK. The years currently covered in this index include July, 1837 to at least 1940.
 * LancashireBMD - an online index (free) to the local superintendant's registrar of births, marriages and deaths for all registration districts throughout Lancashire, for the following range of years and their events: births 1837-1974; marriages 1837-2010; deaths 1837-1975.
 * Lancashire-OPC.org.uk provides numerous parish and chapel transcriptions online (free) for the post-1837 to 1910 period.

Indexes

FamilySearch's Family History Library from July, 1837 to 1983 in microform media.

Online Records

 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index

Hawkeshead parish registers have been mostly transcribed and/or indexed and published online at the following web sites:

FamilySearch has microfilm copies of the original Bishop's transcripts and/or parish registers for all three churches (above).

Non Conformist Records

 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions
Ulverston Poor Law Union,Lancashire

Probate records with indexes are available for Hawkshead Parish
Go to the Lancashire Probate Records and follow the step by step instructions to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction and search the records.

Taxation

 * 1665-1667 - Lancashire Hearth Tax: Lonsdale Hundred, Hawkshead. E 179/132/352, The National Archives. Microfilm: . Also includes Graythwaite.

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