Axminster, Devon Genealogy

England Devon Devon Parishes

Parish History
AXMINSTER, a town, a subdistrict, a hundred, and a district, in Devon; and a parish partly also in Dorset. The town stands on a rising ground, adjacent to the river Axe, above the influx of the Yarty, and contiguous to the Yeovil and Exeter railway, 25 miles E by N of Exeter. There are chapels for independents, Wesleyans and Roman Catholics. The parish includes the tythings of Abbey, Shapwick, Smallridge, Trill, Uphay, West Water, Weycroft, and Wyke or Week, in Devon.

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 FreeBMD.

Church records
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Abstracts of bishop's transcripts (1606-1636) are online at Internet Archive - free.

Abstracts of bishop's transcripts (1634-1635) are online at Internet Archive - free.

Overview, Include information for parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts, Contact information for the office holding the original records, Links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to [county] 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 web sites are:


 * 1851 Jurisdiction Maps
 * Vision of Britain