Gwithian, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
GWITHIAN (St. Gothian), a parish, in the union of Redruth, E. division of the hundred of Penwith, W. division of Cornwall, 7½ miles (W.) from Redruth. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

Gwitihian St Gwithian was a chapelry of Phillack, Cornwall Ancient Parish in Cornwall.

The church and relics of St Gwithian or Gocianus, built in 490, were uncovered from the beach and dunes during the early part of the last century, but were then allowed to be reclaimed by the shifting sands. He is the patron saint of good fortune on the sea. The current church was established further inland in the 15th century but only a few fragments of this building remain incorporated in the lychgate of Edmund Sedding's church of 1866 (the tower however is the original one of the 15th cent.)

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
Gwithian 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. Also available is the website http://webs.lanset.com/azazella/gwithian_page.html with transcriptions.

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 web sites are:


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Brtain

Websites
Gwithian in GENUKI