Jacobstow, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
JACOBSTOW (St. James), a parish, in the union and hundred of Stratton, E. division of Cornwall, 8½ miles SSW from Stratton. There are places of worship for Bryanites, Primitive Methodists, and Thornites.

Jacobstow St James is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cornwall and includes Penhallym in the north of the parish is mentioned (as Penhalun) in the Domesday Book; nearby is Penhallam, site of a medieval manor.

The name Jacobstow originates from Saxon times and derives from St James' (Latin Jacobus) and holy place. As well as the church town, other settlements in the parish include Southcott and those parts of Canworthy Water north of the River Ottery.

Jacobstow parish church is dedicated to St James and there is evidence of a former Saxon church on the same site. The present church is of the 15th century with a nave and chancel and north and south aisles. The three-stage battlemented granite tower houses a ring of six bells. The font is Norman of the Altarnun type and the altar is an Elizabethan communion table.

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
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 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 Websites 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
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Cornwall ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
 * Cornish Parish Records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

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

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 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
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Jacobstow in GENUKI