Launcells, Cornwall Genealogy

England Cornwall  Cornwall Parishes

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

Parish History
LAUNCELLS (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union and hundred of Stratton, E. division of Cornwall, 1½ mile (E. S. E.) from Stratton.

Launcells St Swithin is an ancient parish in Cornwall, places in the parish include: Butspur, Cross, Grimscott, Hersham, and Prestacott.

The parish church is dedicated to St Swithin: nearby, in the wooded valley is the holy well of St Swithin. There are two aisles but the arcades differ: while the north is of granite the south is of Polyphant stone. The fine series of over 60 benchends is from the same workshop as those of Kilkhampton, Cornwall and Poughill, Cornwall. Other features of interest are the medieval wall painting and the tomb of Sir John Chamond, 1624.[Pevsner, N. (1970) Cornwall, 2nd ed. Penguin Books; p. 95]

Charles Henderson writing in 1925 gives the dedication as to St Andrew.[Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; pp. 136-37] The origin of the name Launcells is probably from Lan- and a personal name Kellys. In the early Middle Ages the church belonged to Hartland Abbey and there are records of a dispute over the building of the chancel in 1382 which required episcopal intervention. Unusually for a Cornish church it has not been affected by Victorian or later restorations.

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
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Images of parish registers are available online in historic records (formerly Record Search) Images refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference: P 117

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/l_m/launcells.php

The history, registers and much more have been contributed by the Online Parish clerk for Launcells. The Launcells page contains images of the church and local history.

Census records
Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Stratton Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to [county] 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
 * Vision of Britain

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