FAMILY HISTORY

 We have considerable resources to help in family history research. All the Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers survive for the four former churches of the Parish- Holy Trinity (opened 1714, demolished 1949), Christ Church (opened 1845, closed 1977), St. James (opened 1753, now the Parish Church), and St. Nicholas (opened 1694, destroyed by fire 1971, now partly rebuilt as a Chapel of Ease, but all register entries are within the St. James' books). All except the current registers are kept at Whitehaven Record Office (see the link on the home page) where they may be freely consulted. Over the years there have been around 75,000 baptisms, 20,000 weddings and 46,000* burials between the four churches. This makes the search often time consuming and difficult. To this end there are indexes to the registers , which are also available at the Record Office. *Burials- all town Churchyards were closed in November 1855 due to overcrowding. The figure of 46,000 is up to that date. Christ Church had no graveyard, but buried at Holy Trinity. From 1855 all burials were either at Whitehaven (Preston Quarter) Cemetery or Hensingham Cemetery. The Record Office have the registers for Whitehaven Cemetery up to 1986, and an index to them to around 1940. Registers for Hensingham Cemetery are available up to 1958 and transcribed, in an ongoing exercise. They are matched to gravestones. We also have indexes or transcripts of weddings for all surviving registers for all other Anglican churches from Cockermouth to Ulpha (except Corney and Whicham; Corney is imminent), Whitehaven Presbyterian, Congregational, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist, Kells and Rowrah Methodist, and all Workington Non-Conformist except Roman Catholic. These are at the Record Office. We also have indexes or transcripts of baptisms for Kells St. Peter, Mirehouse St. Andrew, Congregational, Parton Congrgational, Quaker , Presbyterian (in Progress), Baptist, and various Methodist Churches. The Methodist registers are very complex, and need the indexes to make sense of them. These are NOT publicly available, but can be searched on request. For burials, as well as the indexes we have monumental databases to our three churchyards. There are no surviving plans to the churchyards, so actual burial locations cannot be determined. All three have also had their gravestones cleared to the perimeters. The database allows you to find any surviving gravestones. The burial indexes recommence at around 1940 for funerals, and contain details (where known) of the place of interment as well as usual details. There are gaps in this data up to around 1970. It is also available at the Record Office. We also have an index to the burials in Hensingham Churchyard (closed in the 1860's). We also have, available or in preparation, very detailed Rolls of Honour for those on Town War Memorials of all denominations. This INCLUDES those who were missed off War Memorials for variouis reasons, but were casualties from the town. THIS DATA IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST NOW, but will not be published until around Armistice Day 2012, if all goes well. Searches for Baptisms, Weddings and Burials are generally free although a charge may be made for copy certificates. There may be fees for complex or lengthy searches and these will be individually discussed. To request searches, please e-mail us using this button: FOR CLARITY these are all register copies only. Actual Death, Marriage and Birth Certificates are obtained from the General Registry Office (GRO).