Eastham, Cheshire Genealogy

England

Cheshire

Cheshire Parishes

Eastham

Guide to Eastham, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Eastham, Cheshire
Type	Ancient Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
Hundred	Wirrall
County	Cheshire
Poor Law Union	Wirral
Registration District	Wirrall
Records begin
Parish registers: 1598; Separate registers exist for Ellesmere Port beginning 1844
Bishop's Transcripts: 1600
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

EASTHAM, is a township, a parish, and a sub-district, in Wirral district, Cheshire. The township lies on the river Mersey, at a ferry, and on the Chester and Birkenhead railway, between Bromborough and Hooton stations, it is 6¼ miles SSE of Birkenhead; and has a post office under Chester. The parish contains also the townships of Great Sutton, Little Sutton, Over-Pool, Nether-Pool, Childer-Thornton, and Hooton, and part of the township of Whitby. The chapelries of Hooton and Ellesmere-Port are separate benefices. There are a United Presbyterian church, and two Primitive Methodist chapels. The sub-district includes also Bromborough parish, and four townships of Bebington.

The large manor of ‘Estham’, which then included Bromborough, was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Earl Randle Gernons (Ranulf de Gernon), granted the manors of Eastham and Bromborough together with their churches to St Werburgh’s in about 1152. So Eastham had its own parish church then although it was still referred to as a chapel and was served by the mother church at Bromborough.

The church remained the property of the Abbey until 1541. In that year, the Abbey was dissolved and the building became a Cathedral by order of Henry VIII, shortly after the Church of England broke away from the Pope. Eastham church then became the property of the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral.

At that time, Eastham parish then covered seven townships: Eastham, Hooton, Childer Thornton, Little Sutton, Great Sutton, Overpool, Netherpool and also part of Whitby, all but the first now being part of the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston.

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

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

FS PR's =FamilySearch Parish Registers

FS BT's = FamilySearch Bishops Transcripts

Eastham St Mary Parish (1598) Online Records
	Baptisms		Marriages		Burials
	Indexes	Images	Indexes	Images	Indexes	Images
FS PR's	1598-1909	NONE	1598-1939	NONE	1598-1895	NONE
FS BT'S	1600-1870	NONE	1600-1870	NONE	1600-1870	NONE

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.

Eastham, St. Mary (C of E). An ancient parish, originally comprising the townships of Childer Thornton, Eastham, Great Sutton, Hooton, Little Sutton, Netherpool, Overpool and Whitby (part). Registers of Baptisms 1598–1873, Marriages 1598–1992 and Burials 1598–1954 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office.

Parish registers for Eastham, Cheshire, 1598-1954  Cheshire Record Office call no.: P195/1/1-5, P195/2/1-3, P195/3/1-3, P195/4, P195/5/1-3, P195/5638/1, 3-7, 23-25.

Parish registers Content	FHL Film
Burials, 1598-1812. Marriages, 1598-1754. Baptisms, 1598-1827.	BRITISH 2106555 Items 11 - 16
Baptisms, 1826-1866. Marriages, 1754-1838. Marriage banns, 1823-1867. Burials, 1813-1884.	BRITISH 2106556 Items 1 - 10
Marriages including banns, 1792-1812.	BRITISH 2326898 Item 3
Baptisms, 1866-1951. Marriages, 1837-1951. Burials, 1844-1895.	BRITISH 2147234 Items 7 - 13
Burials, Aug. 1895-1954.	BRITISH Film 2147235 Items 1 - 3

Bishop's transcripts for Eastham, 1600-1870 Early entries in Latin. Cheshire Record Office no.: EDB 84.

Bishop's transcripts	FHL Film
Baptisms, marriages, burials, 1600, 1602-1604, 1606-1610, 1615, 1617-1618, 1620-1624, 1626-1627, 1630-1632, 1634, 1636, 1638-1639, 1641, 1664, 1665, 1668-1677, 1679-1685, 1690-1691, 1694-1765.	BRITISH 1655667 Item 3

Other Content	FHL Film
Baptisms, marriage, burials, 1743-1747, 1750-1761, 1764-1830, 1832-1870. Burials, 1831.	BRITISH 1655668 Item 1
Parish registers 1598 to 1700. Includes index.	BRITISH 90132

Non-Conformist Churches

Eastham, United Reformed Church, Crossthwaite Avenue. Founded 1943.

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 (1837-1974)

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

Eastham on GENUKI

Family History Library