Ludgvan, Cornwall Genealogy

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

Parish History
LUDGVAN (St. Paul), a parish, in the union of Penzance, W. division of the hundred of Penwith and of the county of Cornwall, 1½ mile NNW from Marazion. The Baptists and Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists have places of worship.

Ludgvan (Cornish: Ludewan) is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cornwall. Other places in the parish include: Canon's Town, Crowlas, Long Rock, Newtown, Tregurthen, Trenowin, Truthwall, White Cross, and Whitecross.

The church is dedicated to St Ludowanus and St Paul the Apostle but it is probable that the saint did not exist (by just prefixing 'Saint' to the existing name 'Ludgvan); it was rededicated in 1336 and earlier spellings of the place-name vary between forms with and without 'Saint'. The building was originally cruciform and Norman but was rebuilt in the 15th century with a tower; in 1840 a south aisle replaced the previous transept and porch. The feast traditionally celebrated in the parish is the Sunday nearest to January 22.[ The last church services conducted in Cornish were claimed to be in Ludgvan in the late 17th century (however this claim is also made for Towednack, Cornwall).

The parish is mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086. In June 1793, a Roman urn was found by some labourers in digging a trench on the border of the parish near the sea. It was buried in the sand two or three feet under the surface and the coins in it were considerably corroded. However, they were chiefly of the reigns of Gallienus, Victorinus, Tetricus.

The Davy and Borlase families are prominent in the history of the parish. The parents of Sir Humphrey Davy, President of the Royal Society and inventor of the safety lamp are buried here.

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
Ludgvan 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.

Records are also available at the Cornwall Record Office.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish.

The history, registers and much more have been contributed by the Online Parish clerk for Ludgvan.

Census records
Cornwall Online Census Project

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 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
Ludgvan in GENUKI