Davidstow, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
DAVIDSTOW (St. David), a parish, in the union of Camelford, hundred of Lesnewth, E division of Cornwall, 3½ miles NE from Camelford.

Davidstow (Cornish: Lanndhewi) St David is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cornwall. Other places in the parish include: Tremail.

Davidstow' means David's Place and according to legend the church was founded by Saint David in the 6th century, whilst visiting his mother at nearby Altarnun. The church is large but was very much restored in 1875 so that little original work remains inside. Both the nave and the east windows are wider than usual in a Cornish church; a few benchends are interesting, one portrays a bagpiper. The parish is part of the group in the charge of the Rector of Boscastle.

The Parish is nowadays 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 FreeBMD.

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 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
Davidstow in GENUKI