Great Torrington, Devon Genealogy

Guide to Great Torrington, Devon ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
TORRINGTON, GREAT (St. Michael), an incorporated market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Fremington. Great Torrington and N. divisions of Devon, 34 miles (N. W.) from Exeter. The name of this place is derived from its situation on the river Torridge. The church, owing to its partial destruction by gunpowder in 1646, was rebuilt in 1651. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans.

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
Great Torrington 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 Devon Archives and Local Studies.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Baptist
 * Bible Christian Methodist
 * Independent/Congregational
 * Presbyterian
 * Society of Friends/Quaker
 * Wesleyan Methodist

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
Great Torrington on GENUKI