Colan, Cornwall Genealogy

England Cornwall  Cornwall Parishes

Guide to Colan, Cornwall family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
COLAN (St. Colan), a parish, in the union of St. Columb Major, hundred of Pyder, E. division of Cornwall, 3½ miles (S. W. by W.) from St. Columb Major. There are two places of worship for Wesleyans.

Colan (Cornish: Lannwydhek)St Colanus is an Ancient parish in Cornwall.

The church was built in 1250 by Walter Bronscombe, Bishop of Exeter, who annexed it to the office of the sacristan of Glasney College on 7th September 1276. It was dedicated on 14th July 1336 by John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter.

The church comprises a chancel, nave, north aisle, and south transept. The arcade has five four-centred arches of St Stephen's china stone, supported on pillars of the same material. There is a south porch and a north door. The tower is of two stages, embattled, and of the turrets only the pinnacles remain. There are three bells.

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 Free BMD.

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

Overview, Include information for parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts, Contact information for the office holding the original records, Links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Images of parish registers are available online in historic records (formerly Record Search) Images refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference: P35

Census records
Cornwall Online Census Project

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish http://www.cornwall-opc.org/Par_new/a_d/colan.php

Poor Law Unions
St Columb Major Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to [county] 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:


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Add here any relevant sites that aren't mentioned above.

http://www.colan-church.org/ includes virtual tour of the church