Cheshire Family History

Research your Cheshire family history and find your ancestors with these family history, genealogy and local history records and links including BMDs, burials, wills, military records and more.

Archives

BMDs and Parish Records

Burials & Cemeteries

Census Records

  • Census 1841-1921
    Search the census records from 1841-1921, plus the 1939 Register, which has over 1 million Cheshire residents included.
  • FreeCen
    Has a good, but not complete, selection of free records to search and view.

Criminals and Convicts

Electoral Registers

These registers detail landowners, those eligible to vote and why they’re able to vote. For the years when there’s no census records, these electoral records are a valuable alternative. In the following collections, there are over 10 million records of Cheshire inhabitants.

Forums

Heraldry

Historical Directories

Local History

Maps

  • Cheshire Tithe Maps
    Almost 500 Cheshire tithe maps are now available online. Together with the information recorded in tithe apportionments, they are a unique record of land ownership, occupancy and use in Cheshire 150 years ago.
    You can use them to answer questions such as:
    • Where did your ancestors live?
    • Who lived in your village or even your house?
    • What was land in your area used for?
    • Who owned land in your area?
  • Old Cheshire Maps

Military Records

Newspaper Archives

Occupations

Photos and Postcards

School Records

Societies and Groups

  • Family History Society of Cheshire
    Founded in 1969 to advance the study of family history and genealogy, they now have around 3000 members worldwide. As well as helping people with ancestors in the county, they also assist members living locally whose ancestors originated elsewhere.

Surnames

Wills and Probate

Workhouses & Poor Law