Altarnon, Cornwall Genealogy

Parish History
Altarnun (Cornish: Alternonn), St Nonna is an Ancient Parish in Cornwall. It is located on the north-eastern edge of Bodmin Moor at Ordnance Survey grid reference SX223811.

The parish of Altarnun includes the village of Fivelanes and the hamlets of Bolventor, Treween and Trewint.

The church of St Nonna is known as the Cathedral of the Moor and is the largest church. It is a building largely of the 15th century in the Perpendicular style, with a tower 109 ft high. It is notable for the fine Norman font and the amount of old woodwork, including the screen, bench-ends and communion rails which date to 1684. The screen is one of the finest 15th century examples in Cornwall; it has three gates and the cornice of vines and tracery and vaulting are finely carved. The 79 bench-end carvings were executed by Robert Daye between 1510 and 1530 (Pevsner attributes them to 1524 or later) and portray a range of subjects including a Cornish piper and fiddler (Daye's name is given on one but the date is illegible). Also, one of the damaged pew ends was repaired to its former glory by the late local master joiner Douglas Edwards in the 1980s. The dedication is to Saint Non or Nonna, who was the mother of St David.

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
Images of parish registers are available online in historic records (formerly Record Search) Images refer to Cornwall Record Office reference: P 4

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/a_d/altarnun.php

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.

Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Launceston 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. Valuable web sites are:

England Jurisdictions 1851

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