Penzance, Cornwall Genealogy

England   Cornwall  Cornwall Parishes

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

Parish History
PENZANCE, a sea-port, incorporated market-town, and chapelry, and the head of a union, in the parish of Madron, having exclusive jurisdiction, locally in the W. division of the hundred of Penwith and of the county of Cornwall, 67 miles (S. W. by W.) from Launceston, and 282 (W. S. W.) from London. Here are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans; also a synagogue.

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

Overview, Include information for parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts, Contact information for the office holding the original records, Links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Images of parish registers are available online in historic records (formerly Record Search) Images refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference: P 133

Poor Law Unions
Penzance 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:


 * 1851 Jurisdiction Maps
 * Vision of Britain