Goosnargh, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

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

Chapelry History
GOOSNARGH, a township, and an ecclesiastical parish, in the parish of Kirkham Ancient Parish, union of Preston,hundred of Amounderness, N. division of Lancashire, 6¾ miles (N. N. E.) from Preston; the township contains Newsham hamlet. Other places in the parish include: Inglewhite, Whittingham, and Newsham. The Independents have a place of worship; and there is a Roman Catholic chapel, built about a century ago by the Franciscans, and transferred to the Benedictines in 1834.

Goosnargh (pronounced /ˈɡuːznə/, Gooze-Ner) is a village and civil parish on the north side of Preston, Lancashire, England. The village lies between Broughton and Longridge, and mostly lies in the civil parish of Whittingham, although the ancient centre lies in the civil parish of Goosnargh.

Only one side of one road in Goosnargh village lies within Goosnargh parish; almost all of the village lies within adjacent Whittingham parish. This may explain why the village is sometimes referred to as “Goosnargh and Whittingham”, as if there were two villages. Some road signs on entering the village display “Goosnargh and Whittingham”.

The name, meaning "Gosan's or Gusan's hill pasture", derives from (an Old Irish personal name) and erg (Norse for "hill pasture"). The name appeared in the Domesday Book as "Gusansarghe" but by 1212 had changed to "Gosenargh", closer to today's pronunciation. However, one reference suggested "Gusansarghe" was from Norse gudhsins hörgi (related to hörgr), meaning "at the idol's (god's) temple."

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

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

Online Records
 Church of England 

Goosnargh chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Kirkham to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Goosnargh and comprising the whole ancient parish of Kirkham to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the KIRKHAM ST MICHAEL PARISH page.

links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Purcell, Margaret: Sharples of Tarnacre and Goosnargh - Their History from Wills. History and Family Tree of Robert Sharples and Margaret surname unknown, dating from 1642-1831, also extending into Nateby. Article to be found in The Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Soc. Magazine vol.10. no.3, pages 22-26. FHL Ref 942.72 B2r

Poor Law Unions
Preston 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