Downton, Herefordshire Genealogy

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

Parish History
DOWNTON (St. Giles), a parish, in the union of Ludlow, hundred of Wigmore, and county of Hereford, 3 miles (E. by S.) from Leintwardine.

Downton is an Ancient Parish in Herefordshire.

Downton St Giles was built in 1861-1862 by S Pountney Smith and is an Estate church to the Downton estate, Downton Castle is nearby Downton Castle Wikipedia

The church has been designated as a grade II listed building by English Heritage British Listed Building

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Downton like this:

DOWNTON, a parish in the district of Ludlow and county of Hereford; on the river Teme, near the boundary with Salop, 5 miles SW of Bromfield r. station, and 5½ W by S of Ludlow.

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
Downton 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.

The Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre houses many parish registers. See The records we hold for a list of records available there. How to contact them:
 * Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre Fir Tree Lane Rotherwas Hereford HR2 6LA Telephone: +44 (0)1432 260750 Email: [mailto:archives@herefordshire.gov.uk archives@herefordshire.gov.uk] Website: Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre

Census records
See Herefordshire Census

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through the FHC Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Herefordshire 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
Downton

Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.