Shaftesbury St James, Dorset Genealogy

Guide to Shaftesbury St James, Dorset ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
SHAFTESBURY, or Shaston, a borough and market-town, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Moncton-up-Wimborne, county of Dorset, 28 miles NNE from Dorchester, and 101 WSW from London, on the great road from London to Exeter. The town comprises the parishes of St. Peter, Holy Trinity, and St. James, including the liberty of Alcester. The parliamentary limits extend into Wiltshire. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, and Wesleyans.

Also see: Shaftesbury Holy Trinity, Shaftesbury St Peter, and Shaftesbury St Rumbold.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
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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
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Dorset ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Dorset ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

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