Plymouth, Devon Genealogy

Guide to Plymouth St Andrew, Devon ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
PLYMOUTH, a sea-port, borough, and market-town, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Rororough, Roborough and S. divisions of Devon, 44 miles (S. W.) from Exeter, and 215 (W. S. W.) from London containing the parishes of St. Andrew and Charles the Martyr. Trinity church, in the early English style, of which the foundation stone was laid in May, 1840, was completed in August 1842 from St. Andrew's. A church district named Sutton-on-Plym was formed out of Charles parish, in 1844, and endowed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Christ Church, in St. Andrew's parish, was built in 1845, and is in the later English style. Church districts named respectively St. James' and St. Peter's, were formed in 1847 by the Ecclesiastical Commission, the former out of St. Andrew's parish, and the latter out of the parishes of St. Andrew and East Stonehouse. There are places of worship in the town for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents,Wesleyan Methodists, Presbyterians, and Unitarians; and a synagogue.

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

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Baptist
 * Bible Christian Methodist
 * Calvinist
 * Christians
 * French Protestant
 * Independent/Congregational
 * Jewish
 * Protestant Dissenters
 * Trinitarian
 * Wesleyan Methodist

The following non-Church of England denominations were located somewhere in Plymouth, but the exact parish has not been identified:


 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
 * Moravian/United Brethren

Genealogy from Periodicals
Haddon, Gordon. The Two Bligh Admirals. A rough outline of the Bligh Family Tree, indicates the respective lineages close or distant, starting with Richard Bligh in 1742. Drawing of William Bligh. Mr Haddon was trying to prove the connection between Admiral Sir Richard Bligh, and his son, Captain George Bligh, and Lieutenant William Bligh of the Mutiny of the Bounty saga of 1789. Article in The Hampshire Family Historian, vol. 17, part. 4, Feb 1991, pages 252-253, FHL Ref. 942.27 B2h

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Devon 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
Plymouth St Andrew on GENUKI