Taunton St James, Somerset Genealogy

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

Parish History
Taunton comprises the parishes of St. James and St. Mary Magdalene; but many houses extend into the adjoining parishes of Wilton and Bishop's-Hull. Another church has been erected dedicated to the Holy Trinity. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Unitarians, and Wesleyans; and the Roman Catholics have a handsome chapel. The Taunton and Somerset hospital was founded in 1809.

Additional information:

Taunton St James was an ancient parish and lay within the borough and market-town, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Taunton and Taunton-Dean, W. division of Somerset, 11 miles (S. by W.) from Bridgwater. Wilton, Staplegrove, West Monckton, are adjoining parishes.

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
Taunton St James 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.

Information about the parish may be found on Somerset Online Parish Clerks. Records are also available at the Somerset Archives and Local Studies.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Somerset 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/SOM/Taunton/index.html