Boyton, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
BOYTON, a parish, in the union of Launceston, partly in the hundred of Black Torrington, N. division of the county of Devon, but chiefly in that of Stratton, E. division of Cornwall, 5 miles (N. by W.) from Launceston.

Boyton (Cornish: Trevoya) Holy Name is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Devon, partly in Cornwall and partly in Devon; created by 1768. Other places in the parish include: Northcott.

Boyton parish church is located in OS Grid Square SX3292 and was dedicated to 'The Holy Name' in the 14th Century. There was a church here from Norman times. The present church was a plain structure of two aisles built towards the end of the reign of Henry VI in the 14th century. The tower also dates from the fourteenth century and is of two stories and contains five bells. Some of the earlier Norman building can be seen in the chancel, a strange goose like creature has been carved on one of the roof bosses. The font, claimed by some to be Saxon, is a simple, crude bowl standing on a pillar. The ancient screen has some fine carving particularly on the sixteenth century base. The church was fully restored in 1876, with a chancel, nave and south aisle, in addition to its tower.

The modern parish is part of Boyton, North Tamerton, Werrington with St Giles-In-The-Heath and Virginstow United Parish, United Benefice in the Diocese of Truro.

Neighbouring Parishes
Luffincott, Devon St Giles on the Heath Werrington, Devon North Petherwin, Devon Tetcott, Devon Week St Mary, Cornwall

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 Free BMD.

Church records
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Records deposited cover 1568-1970, these registers are kept at the County Record Office, County Hall, Truro TR1 3AY.

The Family History Library has microfilmed parish registers from 1568-1960 and bishop’s transcripts from 1679-1773.

Images of parish registers are available online at FamilySearch under Records. Images refer to Cornwall Record Office reference: P16.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish includes image and description of church and parish.

Census records
Cornwall Online Census Project

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 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 Britain

Websites
Boyton in GENUKI