St Austell, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
AUSTELL, ST. (The Holy Trinity), a market town, parish, and the head of a union, in the E. division of the hundred of Powder and of the county of Cornwall, 34 miles (S. W.) from Launceston, and 252 (W. S. W.) from London. There are places of worship for Baptists, Bryanites, Calvinists, the Society of Friends, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, Warrenites, and Plymouth Brethren.

A once-large parish of 11,450 acres, located in the hundred of Powder, on the south-eastern coast of Cornwall, St Austell did not appear in the Domesday book, but by 1292 was recognized as a separate entity, part of the territory held and administered by Tywardreath priory until the dissolution of the monasteries. There were also manors of Tewington and Trenance, as well as Treverbyn.

The main town also carries the name, and when most people refer to St. Austell now, they most often intend to refer to the town.

The parish church, originally dedicated to Saint Austell (Austol, Austle), an Irish mendicant who arrived in Cornwall with St. Mewan, was re-dedicated to the Holy Trinity, perhaps when the church tower of Pentewan stone was erected in the 1480's. It has been called "a bible in stone", with sculptures illustrating not only the Holy Trinity, but all the apostles, and the 2 Irish saints as well. The church was remodeled in the 1490's, and again in the mid 1840's by St. Aubyn in his well-known style, but some remnants of the original church remain.

The parish was of modest importance until Wm. Cookworthy discovered the use of china clay in 1759, and shortly thereafter it was discovered the parish was rich in this resource; it has since been proven to be one of the top 5 sources of pure china clay in the world. Previously, tin and copper mining had been a mainstay of the parish, but their importance diminished while the china clay mines grew. In 1804, it was estimated 1,400 persons lived in St. Austell. In 1844, when the market for Cornish tin crashed, and subsequently miners found themselves out of work, the china clay mines continued producing - and people moved into the parish, raising the population to over 10,000.

Today, the population is estimated at over 28,000; it is the largest town in Cornwall.

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

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 Websites 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
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Cornwall ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
 * Cornish Parish Records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Online Records
Transcriptions on the St. Austell Genealogy and History website contain baptism, marriage, and burial records from 1565 to 1900 from Holy Trinity Church of England registers, as well as several Non-Conformist chapels and Society of Friends, for Free. The same site has the 1841 Tithes Index, Manorial records of tenants, Voter registrations, and entries from "Directories" 1797 through 1875, as well as many other records.

The Cornwall OPC database has some of the same records for Free viewing, as well as records from the rest of Cornwall, which can be very helpful to researchers should their families move. The Cornwall Family History Society has put their transcriptions of BMDs on the fee-based site, FindMyPast. They also have completed the St. Austell section of their Memorial Index project, which may be of great help to a researcher since many cemeteries have closed, moved and even been turned into a park.

Should a problem or question arise, it may be advisable to seek assistance from Cornwall Archives and Libraries for examination of the original entry in the volume of the registers.

St. Austell Union Workhouse
The St. Austell Union Workhouse was built in 1837, with a capacity for 300 residents and the capability of serving several parishes until 1930, when all such workhouses were abolished. Afterward, the building fell victim to an arsonist. According to the Cornwall Record Office, workhouse information regarding individual inmates in the form of records such as admission and discharge registers no longer exist. All that remain deal with buildings and finance, which would not be of interest to a genealogist.

Census data from 1841 through 1891 is available on the St. Austell History and Genealogy website, as well as FreeCENS. A photograph of the workhouse, and a sample diet is also available on the St. Austell Genealogy site.

St. Austell Registration District
After births, marriages and deaths were required by law to be reported to governmental Registrars in 1837, Registration Districts were established. One of these was named "St. Austell". It should not be confused with the parish.

When utilizing the FreeBMD database at RootsWeb, the Registration District will be shown. Any of the parishes in the District may have the desired information.

As of 2002, the Registration District comprised the following parishes:


 * Charlestown
 * Colan
 * Crantock
 * Fowey
 * Grampound with Creed
 * Lanlivery
 * Luxulyan
 * Lostwithiel
 * Mawgan-in-Pydar
 * Mevagissey
 * Newquay
 * Roche
 * St. Austell (St. Austle)
 * St. Blazey (St. Blaise)
 * St. Columb Major
 * St. Columb Minor
 * St. Dennis
 * St. Enoder
 * St. Ewe
 * St. Goran
 * St. Mewan
 * St. Michael Caerhays
 * St. Sampson
 * St. Stephens in Brannel
 * St. Wenn
 * Treverbyn
 * Tywardreath

As any of these parishes might contain the requisite information, it might be best to access the Cornwall Online Parish Clerk database as it covers all of Cornwall, rather than an individual parish.

Websites

 * St Austell in Cornwall in GENUKI
 * St. Austell Genealogy and History (includes Free transcriptions of manorial records, wills, all BMDs for C. of E. and non-conformist churches 1565 to 1900, photographic "trip" through the parish, War Memorial transcriptions, indexes of directories from 1798 to 1873, Voters Lists 1850-1864, Protestation Returns, Poll tax and Hearth tax returns, etc. Data is added regularly.)
 * FreeBMD
 * FreeCens
 * West Briton & Cornwall Advertiser Newspaper