Upton by Birkenhead, Cheshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
Upton is a township in the parish of Overchurch on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire. The township stands 4 miles West of Birkenhead it has a railway station; and has a post-office under Birkenhead. As Upton is the only township in the parish of Overchurch, the parish is often called Upton.

Upton was originally settled as a farming community, during the Anglo-Saxon period. In Norman times, Upton was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Optone and was written as being in the possession of William Mallbank. Upton was the primary economic centre of northern Wirral until the industrial development of Birkenhead during the mid-19th century.

In 1847, William Williams Mortimer said of Upton in his History of the Hundred of Wirral:

"..though now only a small village, Upton was formerly considered the metropolis of the lower mediety of Wirral, and had two annual fairs of considerable importance, and also a weekly market that was discontinued in 1620, the village having been recently almost entirely rebuilt, contains several good houses, among which may be particularly mentioned Upton Hall..." A major contributor to the village was William Inman, owner of the Inman Line, who donated money for the construction of St. Mary's Church. Inman resided at Upton Manor, within the grounds of Upton Park.

St. Mary's Church is Upton's Church of England parish church and was consecrated on 28 April 1868. It replaced earlier church on the site.

Church records
Upton parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.

Non Conformist Churches
Church records of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Upton Microfilm copy of originals at the Cheshire Record Office in Chester, England.Cheshire Record Office call no.: ERC 28/5473/1. Mostly Latin. Baptisms, 1914-1940. Vault BRITISH Film 2197776 Item 2

An index for these records is available online at FamilySearch Historical records England Cheshire Nonconformist Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records Latin name searches for given names are necessary. FamilySearch privacy policy may apply to this index for 100 years after Baptism.



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 (1837-1933)

Poor Law Unions
Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire

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
Upton by Birkenhead on GENUKI