Cornish Genealogy For Beginners

Start with yourself, add your family, your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc., in fact any relatives you can remember. Question older relatives who can be invaluable in providing knowledge of ancestors you may not know of or have forgotten. Put all this information into chronological order and you will be surprised what a good start you have made. Research back from this information, and if within the last one hundred years or so, you will need to refer to the General Records Office (GRO) Indexes, formerly known as the St Catherine's Index, after the house where the Indexes were kept.

Since 1st July 1837 records of births, deaths and marriages throughout England and Wales have been kept by the Registrar-General, although registration in the early years was not complete.  Indexes are published in respect of each quarter ending March, June, September and December for all the Births, Deaths and Marriages which have taken place in England and Wales during that quarter. Each of the Indexes is in alphabetical order for the quarter and collectively form the GRO Births Marriages and Deaths (BMD) Indexes. These indexes are available at various centres as well as at the Family Records Centre, Myddleton Street, London. The full GRO index, up to 1999, is held on fiche at the Cornwall Family History Society (CFHS) Library, 5 Victoria Square, Truro and, on film, at the Cornwall Studies Library (CSL), Alma Place, Redruth, up to 1939.

By searching the Index you should be able to find whatever relative you are looking for in a particular quarter, together with the registration area in which the event took place. Even if you are not entirely sure when a birth, death or marriage took place, it doesn't take long to look through several years. Most people were in their mid-20s when they married, few marrying before 18-20, so if you have a marriage but no ages, it is worth assuming that the birth of the bride/groom took place at least 18 years earlier and search back from there. You may be lucky and find the birth quickly but if it was a late marriage you will have to go back several years. If you have a birth and are looking for the marriage of the parents, it is as well to search back from the date of the birth, since many marriages took place only a short time before the birth of the first child. With family history it is largely a question of keeping on searching but you will gain a great sense of achievement when you finally find that relative you have spent so much time looking for.

As the GRO index will only give you the year, quarter and registration district, you may require further details by obtaining a certificate.    There are three main methods:-
1.  From the local Superintendent Registrar of the area concerned.    Registration district area and addresses can be found on the GENUKI website. The local registrars do not use the GRO index references, they will need to know the approximate date and, if possible, the parish in which the event was registered.   The cost is currently (2002) £6.50, most registrars do not use credit cards, a telephone call first can save time. See the link from our Members Information page to download copies of the application forms. 

2.  From the General Register Office, PO Box 2,  Southport, Merseyside, PR8 2HH  or telephone 0870 243 7788 - (overseas +44 870 243 7788), you can use a credit card.  Check their website first for details.   Download an application form there, or from the link on our Members information page.

3.  By calling at the Family Records Centre, 1 Myddleton Street, Islington, London. EC1R 1UW.   Check their website for information.

Once you have exhausted the GRO Indexes and are back to the early/mid 1800s, you will be largely dependent on the Church Parish Registers. These Registers were introduced after 1537/8 and contain Baptisms and Burials (as distinct from Births and Deaths) and, of course, Marriages. Although many early Registers have been lost over the years, a surprising number still exist, especially in Cornwall. Today very few registers, other than those which are still in use, are held at Churches.

The Cornwall Record Office (CRO), Old County Hall, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 3AY  holds almost all of the actual registers, and provides access to microfiche copies of them in their search room. The Royal Institution of Cornwall (RIC) Courtney Library, River Street, Truro, TR1 2SJ,  (above the Museum), has copies of many Registers up to the mid-1950s on film. In addition to the Registers, priests had to send an 'annual return' to their Bishop. Known as Bishops' Transcripts,  where they still exist they can be very useful in filling any gaps in the Registers. The Registers are in chronological order within parishes, and consequently you need to know the area in which your ancestor lived in order to start searching. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) has, where permitted, extracted baptisms and marriages from the Registers and made them available to researchers.  The work is known as the International Genealogical Index (IGI), and information from nearly 70% of registers relating to Cornwall have been extracted.  Visit their website, where you can make a general search, but be prepared for a very large mass of information if the surname is a popular one.  They have also been published on microfiche in alphabetical order by county.  The CFHS Library holds the IGI on fiche not only for Cornwall but for the whole world, whilst the Courtney Library holds copies of the IGI for Cornwall. Local LDS Family History Centres hold full copies, addresses are listed in the telephone directory.

There are various other extracts from the Church Registers. Probably the most popular is known as the Phillimore Marriage Index, which contains some 70% of Cornish marriages up to 1812, occasionally 1837. Chronological, by parish, Phillimore is available at most centres and many libraries. CFHS also has these marriages alphabetically. Similar extracts are by Ross and Boyd, again relating to marriages but alphabetical over 25 year periods, frequently covering parishes not in Phillimore. Ross is up to the 1870s generally, and frequently to 1925, but only gives the year of marriage. Both Ross and Boyd are extensive and are held by CFHS. Ross and part of Boyd are also held at the Courtney Library. Numerous other transcriptions of Registers are held at most centres and it is always worth enquiring. Extracts and transcriptions are frequently

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