Longdon, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
Longdon St James the Greta is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire. Other places in the parish include: Upper Longdon and Brookend.

LONGDON (St. James), a parish, in the union of Lichfield, S. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 4 miles (N. W. by N.) from Lichfield; containing 1183 inhabitants. It is situated on the road from London to Liverpool, and comprises by admeasurement 4455 acres. The surface is undulated, and the scenery picturesque, being richly ornamented with wood; the pastures are of good quality, and the arable lands produce excellent wheat and barley. The Trent and Mersey canal passes about two miles northward of the church. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £5. 5.; patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The great tithes have been commuted for £391, and the small for £136; the impropriate glebe contains 49½ acres, and the vicarial nearly 29 acres. The church is an ancient edifice with a tower, and contains a beautiful Norman arch. Portions of this parish, and of Cannock, were in 1837 assigned as a district to the chapel at Gentleshaw, in Longdon: the chapel is dedicated to Christ; and the living is a perpetual curacy with an income of £100, in the alternate gift of the Bishop and the Dean and Chapter. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans; and the Society of Friends have a very ancient burial-ground at Gentleshaw. A national school has been established. St. Mary's almshouses, ten in number, were founded by Mrs. Jane Cotton. At Castle Ring, a point in the Marquess of Anglesey's park at Beaudesert, are the remains of a British or Danish encampment.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 170-172. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51118 Date accessed: 14 April 2011.

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.

Staffordshire BMD have indexes for births marriages and deaths. Due to March 2011 reorganisation of the registration service for South Staffordshire districts the historical registration indexes for this district have been located at the Newcastle under Lyme registration district (formerly held at Lichfield) and applications for certificates need to be directed there. Please refer to the "Updates" page of Staffordshire BMD for further information.

Church records
Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap1663-1965 Mar 1633-2006 Bur 1663-1992 (partly Bishop's transcripts) Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts Bap 1663-1858 Mar 1663-1851  Bur 1663- 1858

Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Lichfield Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire 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

Web sites
Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.