The Parish Registers can be viewed on microfilm at Manchester Central Library in Archives and Local Studies on the first floor, more information on their services, first steps in family history and which transcripts of Cathedral Registers are available can be found at www.manchester.gov.uk/libraries/arls/

Copy certificates are only available from the original parish registers at the Cathedral.

You will need

To provide a date and at least one name for the entry you are interested in

To send a stamped self addressed envelope

To send a cheque for £7 per certificate made payable to Manchester Cathedral

Overseas enquirers should contact the Archives Assistant for guidance as to how to pay, there will be an extra charge for overseas postage.

Archives Assistant, Manchester Cathedral, Victoria Street, Manchester M3 1SX 

'Speaking Volumes' is a small exhibition dedicated to the Registers in the Archives and the stories they tell. Two Registers have been allowed out of the Archives and into the Cathedral Visitor Centre exhibition cases for a limited time only. The 1796 Baptism Register tells the story of Indiana Mundi. Baptised at the Cathedral aged 14, she had already lived through the horror of the 'Middle Passage' transported from her native Congo to St Kitts and then been brought to England. The 1832 Burial Register records the arrival and impact of the cholera pandemic that claimed hundreds of lives that summer. The exhibition also includes clear instructions on how to access all the registers on film at Central Library and how to go about obtaining a copy certificate of an individual entry from the Cathedral.

Manchester Cathedral is one of the earliest and most significant buildings in Manchester. Alongside the original College Buildings that now house Chetham's Library and part of Chetham's School of Music, it forms Manchester's medieval quarter. An understanding of the history of the Cathedral is the key to developing an understanding of the early development and growth of Manchester itself.

The material in the Cathedral Archives naturally falls into two classes: records relating to the administration of the Parish of Manchester – Parochial Records; and records relating to the Dean and Canons, and their predecessors, the Warden and Fellows of the Collegiate Church – The Capitular Records.

Unfortunately, much of the paperwork documenting the functioning of the early Parish has gone astray.  One Churchwardens’ account book of 1664-1711 survives in  the John Ryland’s Library[i] the rest are missing up until the 19th century, which is well covered.

The bulk of the material on the Parish side is made up of what is thought to be the largest complete series of parish registers (of baptisms, marriages and burials), for a single parish, in the country.  There are over 450 leather and vellum bound volumes, covering the period from 1573 to the present day.  The reason for this proliferation of registers is explained partly by the size of the ancient Parish of Manchester: sixty square miles including thirty townships.  This is not uncommon in the north west of England, however; the Parish of Whalley included forty-five townships. The main difference was that Manchester changed from being a rural parish when it became the centre of the Industrial Revolution, and the population grew extremely rapidly in a very short space of time, from the middle of the eighteenth century onwards.