Manchester And Lancashire Family History Society

Established in 1964, Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society is one of the oldest family history societies in England, with some 3,750 members. The area of interest that it covers is Greater Manchester, including Bolton and Oldham.

The Society has local branches with monthly meetings in Oldham and Bolton, and also specialist branches concerned with Irish and Scottish research. It also holds quarterly full-day meetings in Manchester. It is very active in transcription and indexing projects and has published a wide variety of material. It offers regular courses for beginners.

The society has made some wonderful contributions to our collection of military records. This includes records of Crimean War Casualties, where you can discover your ancestor's rank and regiment as well as details of their service during the Crimean War.

If you had ancestors that deserted from the Army, then you can also explore the Army Deserters record collection to find out more about your ancestor's military service and when they deserted between 1828 and 1840.

If your ancestor served during WWI, then the British Rolls of Honour and Nominal Rolls collection allows you to search for regional specific rolls where you can discover army ancestors from the Manchester and Lancashire area and further afield.

• Crimean War Casualties, 1853-1856
• Army Deserters, 1828-1840
• British Rolls of Honour and Nominal Rolls, WWI

This unique collection allows you to search through more than 10,000 records to discover whether or not your ancestor was a member of the Manchester police force between 1858 and 1941.

If you do discover your ancestor in this record set then you can expect to uncover details such as a physical description of them, their marital status and religious denomination.

If your ancestors were caught up in the first great cholera outbreak to hit Britain in 1832, then you can now search records of the cases collected by Manchester doctor Henry Gaulter MD, who was trying to find out what was causing the disease that swept through much of the world that year.

• Lancashire, Manchester Cholera Victims, 1832

Additionally, you now search through over 22,722 records of male and female admissions to the Prestwich asylum to discover whether or not your ancestor's were admitted there between 1851 and 1901.

• Prestwich Asylum Admissions, 1851-1901