Chew Magna, Somerset Genealogy

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

Parish History
CHEW MAGNA (St. Andrew), a parish, and anciently a borough and market-town, in the union of Clutton, hundred of Chew, E. division of Somerset, 6½ miles (S.) from Bristol; containing the tythings of Bishop-Sutton, Knowle with Knighton-Sutton, North Elm, and Stone. At the north-eastern extremity of the parish is a ville, called Norton Hautville or Hawkfield. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Wesleyans.

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

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Information about the parish may be found on Somerset Online Parish Clerks. Records are also available at the Somerset Archives and Local Studies.

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.TMSociety.org - Official website of the Thomas Minor Society which was founded in Chew Magna in 1981 and contains information about St. Andrews parish.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/ChewMagna/index.html