Bridgwater, Somerset Genealogy

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

Parish History
BRIDGWATER (St.Mary), a port, borough, market-town, and parish, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the hundred of North Petherton, W. division of Somerset, 35 miles (S. W.) from Bristol, and 137 miles (W. by S.) from London. This place was given to Walter de Douay, one of William's followers, at the time of the Conquest, and was thence called "Burgh Walter" and "Brugge Walter," by which names, both signifying Walter's burgh or borough, it is designated in various ancient records. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyans, Roman Catholics, Unitarians, and others'''. '''

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.

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 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-Conformists (All other Religions)

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

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/Bridgwater/index.html