Launceston St Mary Magdalene, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
LAUNCESTON (St. Mary Magdalene), a borough, market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the N. division of the hundred of East, E. division of Cornwall, 20½ miles NE by E from Bodmin and 213 WSW from London. There are places of worship for Independents, Wesleyans, and other dissenters.

Launceston St Mary Magdalene is an Ancient parish historically in the Diocese of Exeter but in the modern Diocese of Truro. With St Stephen by Launceston, Cornwall and St Thomas by Launceston, Cornwall it forms the Launceston benefice in the Diocese of Truro.

The Tudor church was built in 1511-1524 by Sir Henry Trecarrel as a memorial to an infant son.

The ornate carvings in granite originally carved for the mansion he began to build at Trecarrel, Lezant have survived. The tower of the church dates from the 14th century, an earlier church and graveyard having previously occupied the site. The modern Roman Catholic Church is dedicated to the martyr Saint Cuthbert Mayne; it was built in the Byzantine style and opened in 1911. The churches at St Stephen by Launceston, Cornwall and St Thomas by Launceston, Cornwall form distinct parishes neighbouring the Ancient Parish.

England Jurisdictions 1851 may assist to search neighbouring parishes.

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

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
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

Poor Law Unions
Launceston 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:


 * 1851 Jurisdiction Maps
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Launceston St Mary Magdelene in GENUKI