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.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring 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
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 Online Records 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 - Somerset ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Somerset ($)
 * West Somerset Parish Register Transcriptions - Somerset
 * 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 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