Nearly 400,000 newly released historic records have today revealed generations of religious free thinkers and dissenters who lived in the Manchester area as far back as 1758.
The records, from the family history website Ancestry.co.uk, make up the newly digitised Manchester Non-Conformist Collection, 1758-1987. The collection details births, baptisms, marriages and deaths of thousands of people who refused to join the established Anglican Church and instead stayed faithful to their own beliefs.
Henry VIII made himself the head of the Church of England in 1534 and people who did not adhere to the new, established faith were persecuted and became known as “non-conformists”. However despite pressure to abandon other beliefs, no law ever actually required people to become Anglicans.
Throughout the following centuries non-conformists grew to include groups such as Methodists, Baptists, Quakers and Presbyterians.
Methodists make up around three quarters of the records launched online today, but many other groups are included, all of which are fully searchable by name, date and parish.
Digitised from original records held by archives services in Manchester, Wigan, Tameside, Bury, Oldham and Stockport, these records are exclusive online to Ancestry.co.uk and will allow local residents the opportunity to see if they any of their ancestors were local free thinkers.
Some famous Mancunian residents featured in the collection include Michael Marks, one of the co-founders of the famous British department store Marks & Spencer, Marks was a Belarusian Jew who emigrated to England in 1882. He eventually met Thomas Spencer with whom he started his business empire and lived his final years in Manchester. He is buried in the city’s Old Jewish Cemetery
John Dalton, the famous physicist who was born into a Quaker family near Cockermouth, now modern day Cumbria. He lived much of his life in Manchester, and was known for his work into atomic theory and as well as colour blindness. He died in 1844 and lay in state in the city’s Town Hall
To search for your ancestors in the Manchester Non-Conformist Collection, 1758-1987, as well millions of other birth, marriage and death records, visit www.Ancestry.co.uk.
Ancestry.co.uk Senior Content Manager Miriam Silverman comments: “These records are a historic reminder of a time in this country when those with different beliefs were often marked out as different and persecuted.” adding that
The collection also provides local Manchester residents the opportunity to get online and find out if their ancestors were among the many thousands of people who did not bow to the authority of the established faith.”
