Bath Abbey, Somerset Genealogy

Guide to Bath Abbey, Somerset ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

To view and printout a list of Bath's chapels and parishes, see A Comprehensive List of Bath Abbey's Chapels and District Chapels.

Parish History
BATH, a city, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the hundred of Bath-Forum, E. division of Somerset, 12 miles east by south from Bristol, 19 (north by northeast from Wells, and 107 west from London, on the direct road to Bristol; containing, with it the whole parish of Walcot, and the parishes of Bathwick, Widcombe and Lyncombe.

The parishof St Peter and St Paul, or the Abbey parish, and the parish of St James, form a rectory, with the vicarage of Lyncombe and Widcombe (both of which also see) annexed. The church was rebuilt in the year 1606. Jointly with Wells, Bath is the head of a diocese comprising very nearly the whole of the county of Somerset.

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
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.

Bath Civil Registration District has a complete index of civil registration from 1837-2007 online through the volunteer effort of Bath BMD,England Marriage registrations post 2007 are added as index become available. There are detailed content tables available.

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
Chapelry is a church or churches built in a large ecclesiastical parish to help the members attend worship services closer to their homes.

Online Parish Records Table

Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Online Records 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
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Somerset ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Somerset ($)
 * West Somerset Parish Register Transcriptions - Somerset
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformist Churches (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Census Records

 * 1523 - Bath City Lay Subsidy, E 179/169/141 . Copy:.
 * 1524 - Bath City Lay Subsidy, E 179/169/142 . Copy:.

Poor Law Unions
Bath Poor Law Union, Somerset

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Somerset 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
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/Bath/index.html