Roseland’s Cornwall Online Parish
About the Cornwall Online Parish
The Cornwall Online Parish Clerk project was envisioned by three Cornishmen; Michael McCormick, David Stick, and Paul Brewer, in 2000. During further meetings, they sorted out the questions and decided the group’s structure – a rather unique concept. There is no “formal” structure, other than a person who co-ordinates the assignments of parishes to individuals.
In January, 2001, they announced the group to the Cornish Lists at Rootsweb – the world’s largest free genealogy resource – and asked for volunteers to come forward.
Through diligent recruiting efforts and enthusiastic volunteers, the group has grown. In fact, it has expanded to several other Counties. Some of our OPCs have been with the group since its inception; others are newly recruited.
Each volunteer takes on one or more parishes and decides how they would like to proceed. The only requirement is that they share their knowledge with researchers at no charge. Many OPCs have chosen to transcribe Parish registers and put those records online via their own websites. All transcriptions are copyright of the individuals who produced them; they are on this site courtesy of those persons and are intended for the use of individuals. Every precaution has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the work, however, as human error may occur, we recommend checking the originals.
Roseland Parish Clerks
The ‘three legged stool’ of family history research is based on Parish Records, Census Records and Central Registration Records. If you are researching your family history in the Roseland then there are free resources available to help you:
Parish Records:
a) Cornwall Online Parish Clerk (OPC) scheme
Here are some resources for your own parish:
St Just in Roseland (including St Mawes)
Gerrans & St Anthony in Roseland
Gorran – No website
Philleigh – No website but OPC contact details can be found here
Lamorran – No website but OPC contact details can be found here
St Michael Caerhays – No website but OPC contact details can be found here
St Michael Penkevil – No website but OPC contact details can be found here
Cuby with Tregony – No website but OPC contact details can be found here
b) OPC Database
As part of the OPC scheme a database of parish records of varying types has been created. Coverage of Roseland parishes is very good so check out the excellent search facilities here
As well as baptisms, marriage & burial records, this database also includes complete Cornwall Hearth Tax, Muster Rolls & Protestation Returns records for wider research.
Cornwall Census Records
Cornwall is very fortunate that all 19th century census records have been transcribed and are searchable online. There are two ways to access these records:
a) A search facility is available at FreeCEN (N.B.: Don’t get mislead into using the form right at the top of the page as this is an advertisement for Ancestry.com!)
b) To browse the records by year/census piece go here
Registration Records
There’s no local resource for these records, but a national project, FreeBMD, has been running for several years and has great coverage of post-1837 birth, marriage & death registrations. You can search the database here. )N.B.: Searching is free, but if you want a copy of the actual certificate then you must order (and pay!) from the General Register Office.
Other Resources
GENUKI – This is a superb resource that will give you information and references to just about all the information sources available. Start here for county-wide resources, then navigate here for each individual parish.
If you live locally (or are visiting the area) then other resources are:
Cornwall Record Office
Gerrans Heritage Centre