Archives & resources for Liverpool
Liverpool Record Office
3rd Floor Central Library, William Brown Street L3 8EW 0151 2333069 liverpool.gov.uk/ archives While original archives and other material are available by search room appointment, users can access popular genealogical microform resources, plus Ancestry or Findmypast, without an appointment during library opening hours. There are BMD indexes, parish registers (the earliest register here is for St Mary, Walton- on-the- Hill, starting in 1586), as well as burial records, street directories, electoral registers, school, hospital and workhouse records, photographs, coroners’ inquests and more. See also liverpool.gov.uk/
libraries/ for details of libraries with local history collections.
Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS
liverpool- genealogy.org.uk The society, established in 1976, covers part of the ancient county of Lancashire known as the Hundred of West Derby, and now has six groups in Liverpool, Leigh, Southport, Skelmersdale and Upholland, Warrington and Widnes. Some collections of society- compiled data are available via Findmypast.
Maritime Archives and Library
Merseyside Maritime Museum, Albert Dock, Liverpool Waterfront L3 4AQ 0151 4784424 liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ maritime/archive/visitarchive.aspx The library is now open on Mondays and Tuesdays on the second floor of the Merseyside Maritime Museum. It holds registers of merchant ships (1739-1988) detailing the owners of Liverpool-registered merchant ships, along with records of the port authority, major shipping companies operating out of Liverpool, slave traders and abolitionists, and seamen’s charities (such as the Liverpool Sailors’ Home). It is also home to the only known surviving first- class Titanic ticket.
National Museums Liverpool
liverpoolmuseums.org.uk Presides over heritage attractions that include Walker Art Gallery, World Museum, Museum of Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum (which is also home to the International Slavery Museum and Seized! Border Force National Museum), Piermaster's house, Sudley House and Lady Lever Art Gallery. There’s also Lancashire Museums ( lancashire.gov.uk/ museums).
Special Collections & Archives
Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool, PO Box 123 L69 3DA 0151 7942696 scastaff@liverpool.ac.uk libguides.liverpool.ac.uk/ library/ sca manuscriptsandmore.liv.ac.uk The university traces its history back to an 1878 meeting in Liverpool Town Hall where it was resolved to establish a university in the city. Today, the special collections department looks after the university archive – comprising administrative records, papers of former staff and students, photographs and other ephemera – plus the Cunard Archive of records produced by Cunard Steamship Co since 1878. According to the online collections guide, many of these records date from the inter-war period. Not all catalogues are searchable online, but work is currently underway to make further catalogues available to access electronically.
The Athenaeum
Church Alley, Liverpool L1 3DD 0151 7097770 reception@ theathenaeum.org.uk theathenaeum.org.uk A private members’ club founded in Liverpool at the end of the 18th century as a library and newsroom for merchants and professionals. The online catalogue details both the Athenaeum’s own archives and collections deposited by individuals.
Liverpool Medical Institution Library
lmi.org.uk Has archives documenting the history of the Liverpool Medical Library, founded in 1779, plus collections relating to medical societies and pioneering doctors.
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Archive
0151 7099222 n.sayer@metcathedral.org.uk
liverpoolmetrocathedral.org.uk/ history-heritage/ cathedral-diocesanarchives The mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool, where you’ll find both cathedral and archdiocesan archives.
Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
0151 7027227 archives@ liverpoolcathedral.org.uk bit.ly/LiverpoolCA
Lancashire Archives
Bow Lane, Preston, Lancashire PR1 2RE 01772 533039 record.office@lancashire.gov.uk bit.ly/LancsArchive Looks after many county-wide collections that may prove useful to Liverpool researchers, such as quarter sessions records and probate material. Its Anglican parish records also include records for some deaneries in the diocese of Liverpool.
North West Film Archive
nwfa.mmu.ac.uk
Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society
lfhhs.org
Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
lan- opc.org.uk
Lancashire BMD
lancashirebmd.org.uk
Lancashire Parish Register Society
lprs.org.uk