Dudley St James, Worcestershire Genealogy

Guide to Dudley St James, Worcestershire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Dudley Priory, a small priory for monks, was dedicated to St. James, and was affiliated with the Cluniac community of Much Wenlock. After the dissolution (of monasteries), the priory was granted to Sir John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in 1540. This priory went into disuse and became ruinous after his death in 1553.

In 1840, Church of England commissioners and with the assistance of local subscriptions built a district church at Eve Hill (also within Dudley's parish boundary). The church registers are held at the Dudley Archives Library, in Dudley and commence from 1844.

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
Many of Dudley Parish Register entries have been transcribed in full by Staffordshire Freereg and can be searched for free.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Worcestershire 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
Worcester Branch of the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.