Phillack, Cornwall Genealogy

Parish History
Phillack Cornish: Sen Felek) St Felicitas is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cornwall. Gwithian was a chapelry of Phillack. Other places in the parish include: Foundry, Guilford, Hayle, Logans, Venton League, and Angarrack.

There is some dispute over the origins of the name. In the 17th century, Phillack was believed to refer to the Irish Saint Felicitas who is said to have founded Phillack church in the 6th century. However, a 10th century Vatican codex mentions a Saint Felec of Cornwall who is believed to have lived about the same time and may be dedicatee of the parish church

The church was originally the parish church also of Hayle: it was built in the 15th century and rebuilt in 1856 by William White but the tower is original.

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
Overview, Include information for parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts, Contact information for the office holding the original records, Links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Images of parish registers are available online in historic records (formerly Record Search) Images refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference: P 186

Images of Hayle Wesleyan Methodist registers are available online in historic records (formerly Record Search) Images refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference: IHY 399 (Baptisms) IHY 203

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish http://www.cornwall-opc.org/Par_new/n_p/phillack.php John Smith also has http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~phillack/ website for Phillack and Hayle St Elwyn

Census records
Overview, Include any unique information such as, the census for X year was destroyed, Collection in FHL and link to catalog, Online sites.

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Redruth Poor Law Union

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

Web sites
Add here any relevant sites that aren't mentioned above.