St Martin (Scillys), Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
MARTIN, ST., a parish, in the union of Liskeard, hundred of West, E. division of Cornwall; containing, with the town of East Looe, 1402 inhabitants. The parish is bounded on the west by Looe harbour and on the south by the English Channel; The Wesleyans have a place of worship. Here was formerly a nunnery.

MARTIN (ST.), one of the Scilly Islands, in Cornwall; 3 miles N of St. Mary's. AGNES (St.), One of the Scilly Islands, near the southern extremity of the group, separated on the NE from St. Mary's by St. Mary's Sound. It consists of two parts, St. Agnes-proper and the Gugh, divided from each other by high water of spring tides.

Scilly Islands, island-group at the entrance of the English Channel, 25 miles SW. of Lands End, 3500 ac., pop. 2320; called Scilly. The islands constitute a parish of Cornwall and are in the Western or St Ives Parliamentary Division of that county. They are about 30 miles in circumference and number 140, but only six of them are of any importance: St Mary's, Tresco, St Martins, St Agnes, Bryher, and Samson.

See Isles of Scilly for more information.

The church was rebuilt in 1866, after having been considerably damaged by lightning. The bell in the turret belonged to a vessel wrecked on the islands. There is a 20th century extension at the west end. The stained glass window at the east end depicts Saint Martin and the Beggar and is by Clayton and Bell. The church is a Grade II listed building.

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

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Cornwall Record Office.

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 websites are:


 * 1851 Jurisdiction Maps
 * Vision of Britain