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Manchester & Lancashire FHS

We are delighted to announce a new release of Bolton Monumental Inscription records in partnership with Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society. We believe that, together with our collection of Bolton cemetery and crematoriun records, this forms the most definitive set of burial and cremation records for a single major urban area in the UK. Great news for anyone with Bolton ancestors!
Bolton Civic Centre, home to its library, police station, museum, courts and health clinics was built between 1932 and 1939
Celebrated as the town with the friendliest population in Britain, Bolton has a fascinating industrial history. The town grew up around textile mills close to the West Pennine Moors. Bolton developed a strong identity with its successful football team, Bolton Wanderers F.C., which I'm pleased to say my great grandfather's cousin, Joe Smith, captained to FA cup victory in 1923!
Fans flooding the pitch after Bolton Wanderers' success at the 1923 FA Cup Final
Together with the 415,000 burial and cremation records shared with us by Bolton Council, we now have nearly 470,000 for the area covering 27 cemeteries and burial sites plus the crematorium. The records in this latest release date from 1555. They include transcriptions of each monumental inscription at twenty sites in the Bolton area. You can search the collection by name, date and location (in the drop-down menu under Bolton's historic situation in the county of Lancashire).

Another useful way to search this collection is by keyword. After you have opened the options for "further info available" on the Monumental Inscription results, you can then search for a specific key word such as "killed", "murdered", "drowned"...etc. For a step-by-step guide on how to use this feature see my recent blog on the upgraded search facility.
Screenshot of the website of St Peter's Church, Belmont
The new records are from the following churchyards and chapels:
  • St Peter, Belmont
  • St Katherine, Blackrod
  • St Peter, Bolton Le Moor
  • St Stephen, Lever Bridge
  • Emmanuel. Bolton
  • St Paul, Astley Bridge, Bolton
  • Wesleyan Chapel, Fletcher Street, Bolton
  •  Christ Church, Walmsley
  • Unitarian Chapel, Walmsley
  • Old Chapel, Walmsley
  • St James, Breightmet
  • St Maxentius, Bradshaw
  • St Mary Deane (Old and New)
  • St Michael, Bolton
  • St John, Farnworth
  • St Paul, Halliwell
  • Holy Trinity, Horwich
  • Lea Lane Chapel, Horwich
  • Congregational United Reform, Little Lever
  • St Bartholomew, Westhoughton

Although each headstone inscription can be downloaded for £2.00, there is also an option to buy a whole burial site for varying prices, starting from £5. As shown in the example from the database above, this can save money if you are searching for records of an extended family. Full price details are given on the database
We are very excited and proud to be working with Manchester & Lancashire FHS on this release. One of the largest family history societies in the world, MLFHS is the first full FHS which has added its records to the Deceased Online database. Founded in 1964, the Society and its four branches offer around fifty meetings a year at which an invited speaker or a Society member will speak on a topic of genealogical interest. There are four branches within the society, representing specialist interests in the areas of Irish Ancestry, Anglo-Scottish, Oldham & District and Bolton & District. There is even an Explorer Zone for young people aged 8-18! The FHS also publishes a quarterly journal, and the Bolton & District branch produces an email Bolton Genies Newsletter. To be added to the Bolton newsletter email list, please contact boltonnews@mlfhs.org.uk

We hope that many of you will be as excited as we are over the new Bolton records. If you find any of your ancestors in the new collection, please do let us know! And if your Family History Society would like to work with us in a similar way to MLFHS, we would love to hear from you. Please do email, write in the Comment box, Tweet us, or post on our Facebook wall.

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