Otterham, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
OTTERHAM (St. Denis), a parish, in the union of Camelford, hundred of Lesnewth, E. division of Cornwall, 6 miles NE by N from Camelford.

Otterham (Cornish: Prasdowrgi) St Denis is an Ancient Parish in the Hundred of Lesnewth and Deanery of Trigg Major. It is in the Registration District of Camelford and belongs to the Boscastle group of Anglican parishes. Otterham parish is bounded to the north by St Gennys, Cornwall, to the east by Warbstow, Cornwall, to the south by Davidstow, Cornwall and to the west by St Juliot, Cornwall. The parish is rural with small hamlets and farmsteads spread fairly evenly across it.

The parish church of St Denis at OS Grid Ref SX168907 is in Otterham village and has a 40 ft tower housing three bells. The church was built in the Norman period but was altered in 1889 when the north transept was demolished.

The parish is part of the Boscastle with Davidstow United Benefice in the Diocese of Truro.

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 Free BMD.

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 (coverage may vary)

Census Records
Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Camelford 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:


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Otterham in GENUKI