Otterham, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
OTTERHAM (St. Denis), a parish, in the union of Camelford, hundred of Lesnewth, E. division of Cornwall, 6 miles (N. E. by N.) from Camelford.

Otterham (Cornish: Prasdowrgi) St Denis is an Ancient Parish in the Hundred of Lesnewth and Deanery of Trigg Major. It is in the Registration District of Camelford and belongs to the Boscastle group of Anglican parishes. Otterham parish is bounded to the north by St Gennys, Cornwall, to the east by Warbstow, Cornwall, to the south by  Davidstow, Cornwall and to the west by  St Juliot, Cornwall. The parish is rural with small hamlets and farmsteads spread fairly evenly across it.

The parish church of St Denis at OS Grid Ref SX168907 is in Otterham village and has a 40 ft tower housing three bells. The church was built in the Norman period but was altered in 1889 when the north transept was demolished.

The parish is part of the Boscastle with Davidstow United Benefice in the Diocese of Truro.

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
Otterham 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 Cornwall Record Office.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish.

Census records
Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Camelford Poor Law Union

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

Websites
Otterham in GENUKI