West Kirby, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to West Kirby, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
KIRBY (West), is a village, a township, and a parish in Wirral district, Cheshire. The village stands on the estuary of the Dee, 1¾ mile S by W of Hoylake railway station, and 7½ W by S of Birkenhead; and has a post office under Birkenhead. The parish contains also the townships of Hoose, Great Meolse , Little Meolse , Grange , Newton-cum-Larton , Frankby , Caldy , and nearly all Greasby. The church is ancient; had, prior to 1780, nave, aisles, and chancel.

St. Bridget Church is an ancient church and it is difficult to be sure of the age of the present building which is believed to have stood on the site for over 1,000 years. Some masonry, heavily restored, remains to chancel, vestry east bay and north aisle and dates from the 1300's. West tower 1492-1530. Restoration, south aisle and vestry west bay, 1869-70.

Church records
West Kirby 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

 * West Kirby, St. Agnes, Darmands Green (Roman Catholic). Founded 1897
 * West Kirby, Methodist Chapel (Primitive), Eaton Road. Built in 1880, closed in 1963.
 * West Kirby, Presbyterian Church, Meols Drive. Founded 1890.
 * West Kirby, Presbyterian Church (Welsh), Grange Road. Founded 1892.
 * West Kirby, Unitarian (Free) Chapel. Built in 1910 in Grange Road, rebuilt in 1928 in Brookfield Gardens. Registers of marriages 1938–1950 and baptisms 1950–1953 are at the Cheshire Record Office.

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 (1837–94)

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
West Kirby on GENUKI