Phillack, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
PHILLACK (St. Felix), a parish, in the union of Redruth, E division of the hundred of Penwith, W division of Cornwall, 9 miles W by S from Redruth. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

Phillack Cornish: Sen Felek) St Felicitas is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cornwall. Gwithian was a chapelry of Phillack. Other places in the parish include: Foundry, Guilford, Hayle, Logans, Venton League, and Angarrack.

There is some dispute over the origins of the name. In the 17th century, Phillack was believed to refer to the Irish Saint Felicitas who is said to have founded Phillack church in the 6th century. However, a 10th century Vatican codex mentions a Saint Felec of Cornwall who is believed to have lived about the same time and may be to whom the parish church is dedicated.

The church was originally the parish church also of Hayle: it was built in the 15th century and rebuilt in 1856 by William White but the tower is original.

Civil Registration
Births, 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 Free BMD.

Church records
Phillack 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 Cornwall Record Office.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish. John Smith also has website for Phillack and Hayle St Elwyn

Census records
Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Redruth Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cornwall 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
There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Valuable websites are:


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Phillack in GENUKI