Devon, England Genealogy

England Devon

Guide to Devon ancestry, family history and genealogy parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.
 * Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

County Information
"Devon.-- maritime co. in SW. of England; is bounded N. by the Bristol Channel, E. by Somerset and Dorset, S. by the English Channel, and W. by Cornwall; length, 69 miles; breadth, 65 miles; coast-line, about 143 miles; area, 1,655,208 ac., pop. 603,595."

Parishes
Use an interactive mapto find jurisdictions for each parish in Devon.

Civil Registration Districts
When civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1837, Devon was divided into a number of registration districts, each containing several parishes. The index to the civil records gives the name of the district where an event took place. Click here to see a list of the civil districts in Devon and the parishes covered by each.

Read more about England Civil Registration.

Websites

 * Devon Resources and help pages on RootsChat Devon Resources and help pages. (Free).
 * Findmypast has digitised the parish records from this county and they are available online
 * Genuki Devon, the main genealogical resource for Devon with links to all known Devon-related websites
 * Devon Family History Society
 * Devon DNA project
 * A brief list of web sites and/or web pages for Devon and many of its parishes can be found at FHLFavorites.info.

Move Content
Exeter City council has posted more than 100,000 cemetery index cards online titled Bereavement Services Alphabetical Index Cards for the three cemeteries managed by the council.

Devon Online Parish Clerk Project is a resource of volunteers willing to provide free look-ups and research within the County of Devon. Over 95 volunteers have adopted approx. 200 of the ancient 500 Devonshire Parishes. (More volunteers are always welcome!)

The Branscombe Project - In 1995, the residents of Branscombe, a small village in Devonshire, England launched The Branscombe Project, which is intended to preserve the stories of their village, current events, and records related to the Village over the years. Among the treasures to be found at this site are the complete, transcribed St. Winifred’s parish records from 1539-2002.

Probate
Before 1858, every town and parish in Devon was under the probate jurisdiction of several ecclesiastical courts. To read more about probate records and see a list of Devon towns and parishes and the probate courts that had jurisdiction over them, go to Devonshire Probate Jurisdictions.