Abbotsham, Devon Genealogy

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

Parish History
ABBOTSHAM (St. Helen), a parish, in the union of Bideford, hundred of Shebbear, Great Torrington and N. divisions of Devon, 2 miles (W.) from Bideford with the hamlets of Shepperton and Littleham.

Church records
Abbotsham 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.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Wesleyan Methodist

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.

Registration District

 * Bideford

Poor Law Union

 * Bideford

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 Identify 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
Abbotsham on GENUKI