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England Manchester

Guide to Manchester history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



HISTORY
While the locale of Manchester is quite old, its status as a city, and one of the premier cities of England at that, occurred relatively late in time.

The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium. The Roman fort was established around AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. This name has continued, with the local residents still being called Mancunians.

Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanization was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialized city.

The Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and establishment of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1838 elevated Manchester's importance which eventually culminated in city status in 1853 – thus becoming the first new British city in over 300 years and cementing Manchester's position as the world's first industrial city.

Later, the building of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 (see the picture above) as well as the world's first railway (from Liverpool to Manchester) resulted in rapid growth for the city itself, and its environs.

Manchester became the hub for the manufacturing region around, with cotton weaving being the primary industry.

LOCATION
Edinburgh is situated in Lothian on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. As such, it is ideally situated for marine access to the Firth, and thence to the North sea.

The castle built on Arthur's Seat is a formidable piece of engineering, making it almost impossible to besiege. Thus Edinburgh was always a defensible location.

It's lowland location makes for easy transportation by all types of carriers. When the first bridge over the Forth was built in 1890, it secured for Edinburgh key transportation routes to the north and north west of Scotland.

RELIGION
From early times, Scotland became a Christian Country. However the type of Christianity practiced was much more rigorous than was practiced south of the border; Calvinism and Presbyterianism.

In 1638, King Charles I's attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Subsequent Scottish support for Charles Stuart's restoration to the throne of England resulted in Edinburgh's occupation by Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth of England forces – the New Model Army – in 1650.

Today complete religious freedom is practiced albeit with still a large measure of Calvinism. The Church of Scotland claims the largest membership of any single religious denomination in Edinburgh as evidenced by a religion census of 2010.

INDUSTRY
Edinburgh has the strongest economy of any city in the United Kingdom outside of London and the highest percentage of professionals in the UK with 43% of the population holding a degree-level or professional qualification.

According to the Center for International Competitiveness, it is the most competitive large city in the United Kingdom.

Known primarily for brewing and distilling, banking and insurance and printing and publishing in the 19th century, Edinburgh's economy is now based mainly on financial services, scientific research, higher education, and tourism.

Banking has been a mainstay of the Edinburgh economy for over 300 years, since the Bank of Scotland was established by an act of the Scottish Parliament in 1695.

CEMETERIES
Edinburgh cemeteries and crematoria

Edinburgh cemeteries

Find a grave in Edinburgh

find Edinburgh graves

GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY
Scots Genealogy

Midlothian Genealogy

Scottish Genealogy

Edinburgh Genuki