Much Cowarne, Herefordshire Genealogy

Guide to Much Cowarne, Herefordshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
COWARNE, MUCH (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Bromyard, hundred of Broxash, county of Hereford, 5 miles (S. S. W.) from Bromyard. The church, having been almost totally destroyed in January, 1840, through the steeple being struck by lightning, has been rebuilt: in the chancel, which was the only part of the church saved, are the figure of a knight-errant, and a monument containing a recumbent effigy of a lady of the name of Reede, with four small figures kneeling by her side, over which is a curious Latin inscription.

Much Cowarne is an Ancient Parish; the church of St Mary dates from the 13th century and has been designated as a grade I listed building by English Heritage British listed building.

Herefordshire Churches Much Cowarne St Mary the Virgin

Gazetteer entries describe that the church spire and part of the church were destroyed by lightning in 1840.

Much Cowarne Wikipedia

Civil Registration
Birth, 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
Much Cowarne 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.

The Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre houses many parish registers. See The records we hold for a list of records available there. How to contact them:
 * Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre Fir Tree Lane Rotherwas Hereford HR2 6LA Telephone: +44 (0)1432 260750 Email: [mailto:archives@herefordshire.gov.uk archives@herefordshire.gov.uk] Website: Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre

Link to the FamilySearch Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
See Herefordshire Census

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through the FHC Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.

Category:England Family History Centres to locate local Family History Centres in UK

Introduction to Family History Centers to locate outside UK.

Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

Poor Law Unions
Bromyard Poor Law Union,Herefordshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Herefordshire 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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/HEF/MuchCowarne/index.html