Didsbury, Lancashire Genealogy

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

Church History
DIDSBURY (St James) a parochial chapelry, in the parish of Manchester ancient parish, union of Chorlton, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 5½ miles (S.) from Manchester. This chapelry, which is separated from Cheshire by the river Mersey, consists of the townships of Didsbury, Heaton-Norris, Burnage, and Withington. The chapel is dedicated to St James. Didsbury had parochial oversight to at least three other chapelries, including at Heaton-Norris St Thomas, (which see), the chapel erected at Withington (which see), to which the townships of Withington and Burnage have been assigned as a district; and another church built at Heaton-Mersey, to which that part of the township of Heaton-Norris has been attached. The Wesleyans have a place of worship at Withington. The Independents built a place of worship at Heaton-Mersey.

During the 1860s and 70s the area between Palatine Road and Burton Road was developed and St. Luke’s Church was built as a chapel-of-ease for Didsbury St James, Lancashire. Plans were in hand for the creation of a new parish and a group of residents obtained an option of a site at the corner of Burton Road and Barlow Moor Road (the site of the Burton Road Mosque). At this point Mr. Roberts offered to build a church and rectory at his own expense but insisted on the present site, the corner of Darley Avenue and Princess Road. In 1881 he was still living on the Chorlton-Didsbury border and would have watched the building of the Church and Rectory,

William Roberts was a brewer in Manchester and owned the Crown Brewery in Hulme in 1851. In the 1870s he employed 62 men and lived at Oaks Farm which occupied the site which is now St. Ambrose's Church.

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
Online Records
 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * 1603 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index and images

Online transcriptions exist for Didsbury St James Chapelry, as well as for the ancient parish of Manchester Our Lady, St George, and St Denys--to which it was attached. Links to online baptisms, marriages and burials registers are displayed below located at the web sites indicated; note the ranges of years:

To view a full list of all the (over 150) chapelries and district churches in the ancient parish of Manchester and their respective links to online transcriptions of their baptisms, marriages and burials, be sure to visit the MANCHESTER (CATHEDRAL) OUR LADY, ST GEORGE &amp; ST DENYS page.

Original Records

The original parish (chapelry) registers are housed at the Manchester Central Library archives.

FamilySearch has microfilmed these original registers from 1561 to 1911 and these films may be researched at any of its 4,600 FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

Non Conformist Records

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images

Poor Law Unions
Chorlton 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