Garstang, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Garstang, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records. See a List of Chapels and Chapelries in the Parish of Garstang

Parish History
Garstang is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Lancashire.

Other places in the parish include: Bilsborough, Billisborrow, Cabus, Catteral, Catterall, Claughton, Cleveley, Forton, Holleth, Kirkland, Nateby, Nether Wyresdale, Winmarleigh, Barnacre with Bonds, Barnacre with Ronds, and Bilsborrow.

The church of St Helen in located in the township of Churchtown (formerly Kirkland) about 2 miles south of the main village of Garstang.

The oldest part of the Church of St Helen dates back to around 1200 AD and the near circular shape of the building suggests that it is possibly a pre-Christian site. The first minister was appointed in 1190. The oldest date stone is 1632. St Helen has been referred to as ‘The Cathedral of the Fylde‘

The first Chapel of Ease was built in 1327 on a site to the rear of the High Sreet; this was demolished and replaced by a new chapel in 1770. It occupies a plot in present day Church Street, which until then had been known as Tythe Barn Lane. It was first known as "All Saints Chapel,of Ease" and became St Thomas' Church in 1848. The Parish was established in 1881 as a separate entity to St Helens Church at Churchtown, some two miles to the SW of the town, and the main Anglican Church in the area for centuries. The graveyard at St Thomas's was first used in 1849, and extended in 1955.

"GARSTANG St Helen, a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Amounderness, N. division of the county of Lancaster; comprising the townships of Barnacre with Bonds, Billisborrow, Cabus, Catterall, Claughton, Cleveley, Forton, Garstang, Holleth, Kirkland, Nateby, Pilling, Winmarleigh, and Nether Wyersdale; and containing 7659 inhabitants, of whom 909 are in the town, 11 miles south by east of Lancaster."

The church is...about two miles from the town, in that part of the parish called Garstang Church-Town, in the township of '''Kirkland.  There is a chapel within Garstang Town and at Pilling''' is a third church, an ancient chapel of ease established at least by the year 1630.

The Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics each built a place of worship, here.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Chapelry is a church or churches built in a large ecclesiastical parish to help the members attend worship services closer to their homes.

Chapelries of Garstang

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

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Poor Law Unions
Garstang Poor Law Union, Lancashire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Lancashire 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
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53240&amp;strquery=garstang British History online