Bideford, Devon Genealogy

Guide to Bideford, Devon ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
BIDEFORD (St. Mary),a sea-port, incorporated market-town, and parish, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the hundred of Shebbear, Great Torrington and N. divisions of Devon, 39 miles (N. W. by W.) from Exeter. The weaving of silk was introduced in 1650, and after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1685, many French Protestants settled in the town. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans.

Civil Registration
Births, marriages and deaths were kept by the government from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Non-Conformist Churches

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images
 * Bible Christian Methodist
 * Independent/Congregational
 * Particular Baptist
 * Presbyterian
 * Primitive Methodist
 * Society of Friends/Quaker
 * Wesleyan Methodist

Census Records
Bideford parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Devon Archives and Local Studies.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Devon Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Valuable web sites are:


 * 1851 Jurisdiction Maps
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Bideford on GENUKI