Manchester Records & Archives
Including Lancashire, Northwest Regional and National Records

Archive services and sources of genealogical research, family history searches and public cecords for the Northwest region of England, Lancashire, Greater Manchester as well as National Records & Archives.

Listed alphabetically:

• Access to Archives
  The A2A database contains catalogues describing archives held throughout England and dating from the 900s to the present day. Website: www.a2a.org.uk ...which is soon to be changed to: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a
  
  
• Ancestry UK
  
  
  
• Bolton Archive and Local Studies Service
  The Archivist, Central Library, Civic Centre, Le Mans Crescent, Bolton BL1 1SE.
  Tel: 01204-332185. Fax: 01204-332225. Email: archives.library@bolton.gov.uk
  Archives: extensive records of local government, families, estates, individuals, trade and industry, clubs, societies, nonconformist churches, charities and other groups and organisations relating to the Bolton area, as well as maps and microfilms of Census returns. Website: www.gmcro.co.uk/guides/gmguide/reposit.htm
  
  
• British Army Records at Ancestry.Com
  Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/militaryhistory.
  
  
  
  
• Bury Archive Service
  1st Floor, Derby Hall Annex, Edwin Street, Bury BL9 OAS
  Telephone 0161-797 6697. Email: archives@bury.gov.uk.
  Records of Local Authorities 1675 to the present including Poor Law, Electoral Registers, Rate Books, Building Plans, Nonconformist churches 1782-date, Political parties, Trade Unions, Tithe maps of parts of Bury and Prestwich parishes and Schools from 1726 to the present. Website: www.gmcro.co.uk/guides/gmguide/reposit.htm.
  
  
• British Telephone Directories from 1880
  Website: www.gmcro.co.uk/guides/gmguide/reposit.htm.
  
  
• Cheshire & Chester Archive & Local Studies
  Their service collects and preserves historical records relating to both the ancient and modern county of Cheshire, the diocese and the City of Chester. It makes the records available for study free of charge by members of the public. It also provides a records management service for Cheshire County Council and houses the Local Studies Library. Website: www.cheshire.gov.uk/recoff/home.htm.
  
  
• Cheshire Family History Society
  The Family History Society of Cheshire (FHSC) was founded in 1969 to advance the study of family history and genealogy, and helps researchers whose ancestors originated in Cheshire. Website: www.fhsc.org.uk.
  
  
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
  The Commission's database lists the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries, memorials and other locations worldwide where they are commemorated. The register can also be searched for details of the 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action in the Second World War. Website: www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx.
  
  
• Discover Military History
  Medal cards, service records & more online at The National Archives
  www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
  
  

  
  
  

• Family Search
  Based on, and provided by, the Church of Latter day Saints (Mormons) database, another good place to start researching family history and genealogy.
  Website: www.familysearch.org
  
  
• Federation of Family History Societies
  An international organistion whose principal aims are: to coordinate and assist the work of societies or other bodies interested in family history, genealogy and heraldry; to foster mutual cooperation and collaborative projects to help researches, and to represent the interests of our members, and family historians generally, especially in the preservation and availability of archival documents.
  Website: www.ffhs.org.uk
  
  
• Find My Past
  1914-1918 War Records. Death indices for all WWI battles, army lists, roll calls & records. www.findmypast.com
  
  
• First World War Records
  Find your ancestors for free - Search 350 million records
  www.GenesReunited.co.uk/war/records
  
  
• Genealogy Guide
  A useful and friendly directory of where to start looking for those wishing to learn more about their family history and provides useful advice regarding tracing their family trees. What documents are available and what information do they hold? How to set about researching your family history? Worth a look.
  Website: www.genealogy-guide.org.uk.
  
  
  
  
• General Register Office for England & Wales (GRO)
  Contains records of births, marriages and deaths for the UK. The GRO can often provide guidance and information if you are investigating your family genealogy, etc., and has a Traceline aimed at re-establishing contact between family and friends.
  Website: www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content
  
  
• GENUKI - UK & Ireland Genealogy
  The Genuki web site provides an excellent starting point for those beginning to research their family history in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
  Website: www.genuki.org.uk/gs
  
  
• Greater Manchester County Record Office
  GMCRO stores historical records relating to the Greater Manchester area, and to make them available for members of the public for research. Some records date back to 1197. Contains records of estate papers, birth, marriage or a death certificates, vehicle registration records, and can carry out searches via the post at an hourly research charge. Microfilm records available to the public. Website: www.gmcro.co.uk.
  
  
  
  
• Greater Manchester Museum of Science and Industry Archives
  Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester M3 4JP. Tel: 0161-832-2244.
  Keeps Business records including engineering, machine tool, mill engines, electrical engineering, locomotive and motor car manufacture, textile (with fabric samples), photographic materials and chemical firms, photographs National Paper Museum, and offers a typescript guide to its collections. Also now keeps the Mining Reference Library, formerly kept by the Lancashire Mining Museum at Buile Hill, now closed, (See Main Entry). This collection has 15,000 volumes, including early works, as well as Coalmining, Metalliferous Mining and Quarrying records.
  
  
• Greater Manchester Past Finder (GMPF)
  Record Offices of the ten metropolitan councils in Greater Manchester. They are Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan councils - together with the Greater Manchester County Record Office (GMCRO) which is run jointly by the councils. The Record Offices collect, preserve and make accessible to the public important records of the life and history of their areas. The GMCRO provides certain technical services and cares for archives relating to the conurbation as a whole.
  Website: www.gmcro.co.uk/hlf/past_finder.htm.
  

• Greater Manchester Record Office - Will & Probate
  Records include probate records, wills, inventories and the letters of administration granted to an executor where the deceased has not left a will. Indexes to probate granted in England and Wales 1858-1951 only.
  Website: www.gmcro.co.uk/family_history/wills.htm.
  
  
  
• Irish & UK Ancestors Search
  

  Given Name(s)

  Last Name

  
  
  
• Jewish Museum Archives
  190 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester M8 8LW. Tel: 0161-834 9879.
  Retains deposited records of the Jewish communities in the Greater Manchester region. For records of official Jewish organizations see Manchester City Archives (above).
  Website: www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com
  
  
• John Rylands University Library of Manchester
  1). - At Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
  Contact: Main Library Archivist Tel: 0161-275 3738.
  Please note that a Manchester University Library card is needed and visits should preferably be by appointment.
  Keeps University archive, including papers of former staff, Business records including Guardian and other newspaper archives, records of English textile companies and of the Manchester Medical Society.
  2). - At Deansgate Building, Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH.
  Tel Administrator: 0161-834 5343
  Keeps Western and Eastern manuscripts - ancient, mediaeval and modern, as well as Family records including papers of many Cheshire and Lancashire families Business. Website: http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/text/jrulmdg.html
  
  
• Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society
  The main aims of the Society are to advance the study of genealogy, heraldry, and family history, to find, publish, and make accessible relevant documents and records, to promote the preservation of these documents and records, especially by transcribing original sources, to collaborate with organisations and bodies who have custody of records and to operate an information service and build up a library. Website: www.lfhhs.org.uk
  
  
• Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Project
  This site aims to extract and preserve the records from the various parishes of Lancshire and to provide online access to that data, free of charge, along with other data of value to family and local historians conducting research.
  Website: www.lan-opc.org.uk.
  
  
• Lancashire Record Office
  Vast holdings of archives dating from the early 12th Century to the present day - general information for genealogists.
  Website: www.lancashire.gov.uk/education/d_lif/ro/index.asp
  
  
• Manchester Archives and Local Studies
  The Principal Archivist, Central Library, St Peter's Square,
  Manchester M2 5PD. Tel: 0161-234 1980.
  Manchester Archives and Local Studies, on the first floor of the Central Library, is home to a wide range of materials relating to the history of Manchester, its organisations, its buildings and its people. Anyone studying the city and its history is welcome to use the range of reference facilities available. Collection includes microfilms of Parish Registers, Census Records, Electoral Registers, Town & City Directories, etc. Website: www.manchester.gov.uk/libraries/arls
  
  
• Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society
  Founded in 1964 as the Manchester Genealogical Society, the Society encourages and supports family history research in the Greater Manchester area including Bolton and Oldham. Based at Clayton House in central Manchester.
  Website: www.mlfhs.org.uk
  
  
• Manchester In Touch
  A facility available on the 'Manchester Online' website (by the Manchester Evening News newspaper). Specialises in reunited Mancunians, Lancastrians and ex-pats and in publicising reunions.
  Post your message free at www.manchesteronline.co.uk/intouch
  
  
• National Archives - Military History Records
  Medal cards, service records & more online at The National Archives
  www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
  
  
• North West Film Archive
  Manchester Metropolitan University, Minshull House,
  47-49 Chorlton Street, Manchester M1 3EU.
  Tel: 0161-247 3097. Fax: 0161-247 3098. Email: n.w.filmarchive@mmu.ac.uk
  By appointment only. The Archive keeps 21,000 items showing life in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside from 1896 to the present. The collection includes cinema newsreels, documentaries publicity films, television programmes and home movies. Complimentary collections of photographs, taped interviews and ephemera related to the history of the region's film and cinema industries are also held.
  Website www.nwfa.mmu.ac.uk
  
  
  
  
• North West Sound Archive
  Clitheroe Castle, Clitheroe, Lancashire BB7 1AZ.
  Contact - Sound Archivist Tel: 01200 427897.
  Email: nwsa@ed.lancscc.gov.uk
  100,000 recordings largely relating to the North West.
  By prior arrangement many recordings can be made available at
  The Greater Manchester Listening Centre based at GMCRO (above). Collections of regional and national significance - Solidarity, Radio Astronomy. Large collections of BBC and ILR programmes, and regional oral history material, dialect and western classical music. Free computer information search service and leaflet on archive available.
  Website: http://lancashire.gov.uk/education/lifelong/ro
  
  
• Oldham Local Studies and Archives
  84 Union Street, Oldham OL1 1DN. Email: archives@oldham.gov.uk
  Tel: 0161-911 4654. Fax: 0161-911 4654.
  Holds records of predecessor authorities as well as Urban Districts of Chadderton, Crompton, Failsworth, Lees, Royton, Saddleworth, Springhead and Uppermill. Details of local Cooperative Society and textile trade unions, Higson antiquarian collection, Personal papers of Dame Sarah and Majory Lees of Werneth Park, including suffrage material, and the Rowbottom diaries: daily events in Oldham 1787-1829.
  Website: http://www.oldham.gov.uk/community
  
  
• Parish the Thought
  www.parish-thethought.us
  A free record source for a growing list of parish and other record transcriptions of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Sussex, with links to other sites of interest to genealogists. Many of the Lancashire transcriptions can be found indexed under
  their various parish names on the Lancashire OPC website:
  www.lan-opc.org.uk/index.html.
  
  
• Peoples' History Museum: Labour History Archive & Study Centre
  The Labour History Archive and Study Centre (LHASC) is the only specialist repository for the political wing of the Labour movement. It holds records for working class political organisations from the Chartists to New Labour.
  Website: www.peopleshistorymuseum.org.uk.
  
  
• Rochdale Local Studies Library
  Touchstones Rochdale, The Esplanade, Rochdale OL16 1AQ.
  Tel: 01706-864915. Email: localstudies@rochdale.gov.uk
  Archival material includes Municipal and other Administrative records, Trades Union and Political Records, Rochdale Pioneers Minutes, Industrial and Commercial Records, Manor Records, Family Records. They also carry, on microfilm, local census returns, parish registers, Burgess Rolls, 1858-1881, Wills 1553-1810, as well as Poor Law and Landowners records.
  Website: www.rochdale.gov.uk/living/libraries.asp?url=lslocs
  
  
• Salford City Archives Service
  Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Peel Park,
  The Crescent, Salford M5 4WU. Tel: 0161-736 2649.
  Fax: 0161-745 9490. Email: salford.museum@salford.gov.uk.
  The Archive holds a huge collection of photographs, documents and newspapers relating to Salford's past. These include Local authority records including Poor Law Union, Public records including Quarter Sessions, Coroner (Salford City) transferred to Greater Manchester County Record Office, Religious including Nonconformist, Family records, Trade Unions and details of societies and charities.
  Website: www.gmcro.co.uk/guides/gmguide/reposit.htm .
  
  
• Stockport Archive Service
  The Archivist, Central Library, Wellington Road South, Stockport SK1 3RS.
  Tel: 0161- 474 4530. Email: localheritage.library@stockport.gov.uk.
  Keeps Local authority records, Public records including Borough Magistrates Court, Hospital records, Family records including the Bradshaw-Isherwood estate, and publishes a Guide to Stockport Family History.
  Website: www.gmcro.co.uk/guides/gmguide/reposit.htm .
  
  
• Tameside Archive Service
  Closed on October 9th 2004 for 3 months during move to a brand new building next to the Central Library, Old Street in Ashton-under-Lyne.
  Tel: 0161-338 2708 and 3831. Fax: 0161-303 8289.
  Email: archives@mail.tameside.gov.uk
  Keeps Local authority records including Turnpike Trust (Saltersbrook), Public records including Hospital, Religious records including Nonconformist, Family records including Clarke family of Hyde, Stamford estate, Business including Trade Unions and Manchester Regiment archives. Also offers a free guide to the archive collection: "Tracing your Family". Website: www.tameside.gov.uk/leisure/new/lh23.htm.
  
  
• Trafford Library Local Studies Service
  The Local Studies Librarian, Trafford Local Studies Centre, Sale Library,
  Sale Waterside, Sale M33 7ZF. Tel: 0161-912 3013.
  Email: trafflocals@trafford.gov.uk.
  Records include St. Catherine's House Index 1837-2000, Census Returns for the Trafford District 1841-1901, Parish Registers on microfilm, Local Newspapers, maps, Gas Industry Genealogical Index, Rate Books, Electoral Registers, Local Authority records, Local Societies and a photographic collection. Offers 2 guides for free: "Trafford Local Studies and Archives" and "Sources for Family History".
  Website: www.gmcro.co.uk/guides/gmguide/reposit.htm .
  
  
• UKBMD - UK Births, Marriages & Deaths
  This site provides links to many websites that offer online details of births, marriages and deaths and offers links to many UK census transcriptions. You can also select and search for websites that are dedicated to providing online information for genealogists researching births, marriages and deaths in the UK. Website: www.ukbmd.org.uk.
  
  
• UK Genealogy - Lancashire
  Includes old maps, UK genealogy search facility, Electoral Roll search, Birth Adoption Records and other useful information for family searches.
  Website: www.ukgenealogy.co.uk/lan.htm.
  
  
• Universities Consortium of Research Libaries (COPAC)
  Copac, based at the University of Manchester, is a union catalogue which provides free access to the merged online catalogues of 24 major university research libraries in the UK and Ireland, as well as the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the National Library of Wales/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru. Website: http://copac.ac.uk
  
  
• War Records 1914-1918
  Death indices for all WWI battles, army lists, roll calls & records.
  www.findmypast.com.
  
  
• Wigan Family & Local History Society
  Wigan Family History Society now meet at the Lady Bowes Lyon public house (the old Labour Club) at Beech Hill, Wigan every third Tuesday of the month (7.30 for 8.00 pm start) except July and August. External speakers on history related topics and members' evenings with a mini-talk. Our aim is to provide support, help, ideas and advice for members and non-members alike. Attendance fee is £1.00 for members and £1.50 for visitors. Light refreshments are served after the meeting which usually last about one hour.
  Tel: Sharon Weir (Hon Secretary): 01942 740369.
  Email: sharon.weir@blueyonder.co.uk. Website: www.wiganworld.co.uk.
  
  
• Wigan Record Office
  Contact: The Archivist, Town Hall, Leigh, Wigan WN7 2DY.
  Tel: 01942-404430. Fax: 01942-404425. Email: heritage@wlct.org
  Collection includes Local authority records including Poor Law Unions for Leigh and Wigan, Public records including Quarter Sessions and Petty Sessions, Coroner reports, Hospital records, Census microfilms, Religious records including Parish, Methodist and other Nonconformist churches, Family records including Anderton of Ince, Crawford of Haigh estate, Holt, Leigh family, Standish of Standish, The Edward Hall collection of diaries, Trade Unions records and societies. Offers a range of guides to the archives and specialist local topics.
  Website www.wlct.org/Culture/Heritage/archives.htm.
  
  
• World War I Records
  Find your ancestors for free - Search 350 million records
  www.GenesReunited.co.uk/war/records.
  
  
• Yorkshire: Huddersfield & District Family History Society
  The Society caters particularly for those researching and with interests in the Metropolitan District of Kirklees, which comprises Batley, Colne Valley, Denby Dale, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Holme Valley, Kirkburton, Meltham, Mirfield and Spen Valley. Within its boundaries lie the 11 ancient parishes of Almondbury, Batley, Birstall, Dewsbury, Emley, Hartshead, Huddersfield, Kirkburton, Kirkheaton, Mirfield and Thornhill. Website: www.hdfhs.org.uk

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