Cardinham, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
CARDINHAM (St. Mewbred), a parish, in the union of Bodmin, hundred of West, E. division of Cornwall, 3¾ miles (E. N. E.) from Bodmin.

Cardinham (Cornish: Kardhinan; Archaic English: Cardinan More recent obsolete English spelling: Cardynham) has existed for more than 1000 years and is one of the Cornish parishes not carrying the same name as the saint for whom the church is named (St Meubred). The name is Cornish from "Car" or "Caer" which means "enclosure" or "fort," and "dinas" which may also mean "fortress." It is assumed from the name that there has been a castle or fortress there since ancient times, and it is thought that the castle was built there about 1080 by Robert of Mortain, a half-brother to William the Conqueror. The castle was occupied by Robert Fitz-Turold and his descendants for about 200-300 years. The family used the family name "de Cardinan," taken from this place. The castle was a very short distance to the south and east of the church. It is on private land, but almost nothing remains there.

The present church dates from about the 15th century, and was repaired after some damage from an errant bomb during World War 2. The church and parish maintain their own identity with regular services, but currently share a vicar with Warleggan and St Neot parishes.

It is sparsely populated without commerce or significant industry. The land area is more than 9000 acres, and the population during the past 200 years has been generally between 400-800 persons. Most of the properties are farm land, with small clusters of houses near the church and at Millpool, about 1½ miles to the north.

Neighboring Parishes
When an event such as baptism, marriage, or burial is not found in the registers of the parish where it might be expected to be recorded, it may often be found in a neighboring parish, particularly a marriage when one of the parties was from a nearby parish. Beginning on the north and moving clockwise around the boundaries of the parish are the ecclesiastical parishes of Temple, Warleggan, Broadoak (Braddoc), St Winnow, Lanhydrock, Bodmin, Helland, and Blisland.

Cemeteries
There are two cemeteries, the original being the church yard of the Parish Church of Cardinham (St Meubred's Church). There is a newer cemetery nearby, only a few meters down the hill southward and on the opposite side of the road. The parish registers include the burials in both locations without distinguishing which burial ground. The OS grid reference is approximately 123687

Civil Registration
Births, marriages and deaths were kept by the government from July 1837 to the present day. Cardinham has been in the Bodmin Registration district since the inception of civil registration. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Parish Records
Cardinham 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.

The parish registers of baptisms, banns, marriages, and burials are extant beginning in 1701. Earlier records were apparently lost and are not known to exist. There are a few Bishops Transcripts dating back to 1675, but coverage is not complete. Phillimore's marriage transcripts cover 1701-1812. The Cornwall Family History Society has published the marriages 1701-1812, the marriages 1813-1837, and the burials 1813-1837. All parish registers (baptisms, marriages, and burials) from 1813-1911, as well as the burials 1701-1812 and marriages and banns 1754-1812 have been transcribed and posted on the database of the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks. These are indexed and searchable on that website without cost. The Cornwall Online Parish Clerks' database does not publish records less than 100 years old to be viewed online, but the OPC does have more recent records (as late as 1960), and information for these more recent events can be obtained by contacting him directly.

Although Fletchers Bridge, Turfdown, and Margate are in Bodmin Borough, most of the church events for those living there were in the Cardinham Parish.

Non Conformist Churches
Non-conformist records are also available at the Cornwall Record Office, and transcriptions are available on CD from commercial sources, including Cornwall Legacy. Both Wesleyan Methodists and Bible Christian adherents lived in the parish, but jurisdictions do not follow Anglican boundary lines. Most records are to be found in the Bodmin Wesleyan Circuit, the Bodmin Bible Christian Circuit, and the Liskeard Bible Christian Circuit, although baptisms were occasionally performed by someone farther afield, especially among the Bible Christians. There have been non-conformist chapels in the hamlets of Millpool and Fletchers Bridge, as well as Cardinham. The Methodist Chapel at Millpool holds regular services, while no services are currently being held in the chapel at Cardinham village, and the chapel building at Fletchers Bridge has passed into private hands. Some records of the Methodist congregations are in the FamilySearch Catalogue.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks. He has access to images of all existing parish records from 1701-1960 and transcripts of Methodist/Bible Christian records up to 1900. He has transcribed all of the parish records for Cardinham 1701-1960, and those that are at least 100 years old can be viewed on the Cornwall OPC database. The information on the more recent records can be obtained by contacting him directly through the Cornwall OPC website.

Census records
The most accurate census transcriptions (because they were done by Cornish people familiar with the names and places) are found at the Cornwall Online Census Project at Link The UK Census Online (FreeCEN), while not uniquely Cornish, is also valuable and will often yield positive results when other sites providing the census fail to find the person sought, because the search function allows a phonetic search of surnames.

Poor Law Unions
Bodmin 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 in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Cardinham is found on the OS Explorer Map 109 "Bodmin Moor" at grid number 123687. Historic map reproductions are also available in the Cassini Historic Map Old Series (1813) and Revised New Series (1900), both titled "Newquay and Bodmin."

Valuable web sites are:


 * 1851 Jurisdiction Maps
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Cardinham in Genuki

One should also note the links on the main page for Cornwall, as well as an overview of Cornish research on the sub-heading page of this wiki at Cornwall Genealogy