Backford, Cheshire Genealogy

England

Cheshire

Cheshire Parishes

Backford

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

Backford, Cheshire
St. Oswald Church Backford
Type	Ancient Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
Hundred	Broxton; Wirrall
County	Cheshire
Poor Law Union	Great Boughton
Registration District	Great Boughton
Records begin
Parish registers: 1562
Bishop's Transcripts: 1581
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery	Wirral
Diocese	Pre-1541 - Lichfield and Coventry; Post-1540 - Chester
Province	York
Legal Jurisdictions
Probate Court	Pre-1541 - Court of the Bishop of Lichfield (Episcopal Consistory) Post-1540 - Court of the Bishop of Cheshire (Episcopal Consistory)
Location of Archive
Cheshire Record Office

Parish History

BACKFORD (St. Oswald), is a parish, in the union of Great Boughton, partly in the Higher division of the hundred of Wirrall, and partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Broxton, S. division of the county of Chester; it is comprised of the townships of Backford, Caughall, Chorlton, Lea, and Mollington-Tarrant.

Backford, St. Oswald is  an ancient parish serving the townships of Backford, Caughall, Chorlton by Backford, Great Mollington and Lea by Backford. Registers of Baptisms 1562–1981, Marriages 1562–1977 and Burials 1573–1981 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office.

St Oswald's Church, Backford is in the village of Backford, northwest of Chester, Cheshire. The church dates from the 14th century with later additions and restorations.It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Wirral South. Its benefice is combined with that of Holy Trinity Church, Capenhurst.

The first mention of a church on this site is in the 13th century. Soon after this it was given by the barons of Dunham Massey to the Benedictine Priory at Birkenhead. At the dissolution of the monasteries the advowson was passed to the Diocese of Chester. The chancel dates from the 14th century and the tower from the 15th century. The nave was rebuilt in 1728–31.

Resources

Census records

Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census Records and Indexes Online. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library.

Church Records

Backford St Oswald parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

CPR = Cheshire Parish Register Project - free

FS PR's =FamilySearch Parish Registers

FS BT's = FamilySearch Bishops Transcripts

JOIN = The Joiner Marriage Index - (£)

Backford St Oswald Parish (1562) Online Records
	Baptisms		Marriages		Burials
	Indexes	Images	Indexes	Images	Indexes	Images
CPR	1562-1871		1562-1871		1573-1981
FS PR's	1562-1909	NONE	1562-1934	NONE	1573-1981	NONE
FS BT'S	1581-1855	NONE	1581-1838	NONE	1581-1840	NONE
JOIN			1562-1836

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Parish registers for Backford, 1562-1981 Cheshire Record Office reference: P32 1/1-4, P32/2/1-2, P32/3/1-3, P32/4, P32/5/1-2, P32/6.

 An index for Cheshire parish registers is available online FamilySearch Historical Records.

Here is a list of church registers on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Parish Register	FHL Film
Baptisms, marriages, burials, 1562-1808. Baptisms, 1813-1981. Marriages, 1808-1812 (includes banns).	BRITISH 2093492 Items 6 - 12
Marriages, 1813-1964. Banns of marriages, 1824-1906. Burials, 1813-1981. Burials in woollen, 1678-1686 (includes memorandums, 1725-1735).	VAULT BRITISH 2093504 Items 1 - 6

The parish register transcripts online are complete at Cheshire Parish Register project.

Title Bishop's transcripts for Backford, 1581-1840  Early entries in Latin. The church is St. Oswald. Cheshire Record Office refence: EDB 14.

Bishop's Transcripts	FHLFilm
Baptisms, marriages, burials, 1581, 1586, 1600-1602, 1605 1607-1610, 1615-1617, 1619, 1622-1624, 1626, 1633-1634, 1638-1642, 1663-1664, 1669-1671, 1674-1675, 1677, 1679-1681, 1685, 1690-1691, 1694-1703, 1705-1739, 1741-1787, 1789-1838. Baptisms, burials, 1838-1840.	BRITISH  1656809 Item 1
Another filming, 1989	BRITISH 1655366 Item 2

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Non-Conformist Churches

None

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

• Great Boughton (1837-1869)
• Chester (1870-1937)
• West Cheshire (1937)

Poor Law Unions

Tarvin (previously Great Boughton) Poor Law Union, Cheshire

Chester Poor Law Union (1871-1930)

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

Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.

• England Jurisdictions 1851
• Vision of Britain

Websites

Backford on GENUKI

Bibliography

Pevsner, Nikolaus; Edward Hubbard (2003) [1971], The Buildings of England: Cheshire, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 69–70, ISBN 0 300 09588 0