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England     Gloucestershire   Gloucestershire Parishes

See a "Comprehensive List of Bristol City Parishes and Episcopal Chapels"

Parish History

BRISTOL, a city and county of itself, and a considerable port, situated near the mouth of the Bristol Channel, and between the counties of Gloucester and Somerset, into both of which the town extends, 34 miles (S. W. by S.) from Gloucester, 12 (N. W.) from Bath, and 118 (W.) from London; containing, in the old city, 64,266 inhabitants, exclusively of those in Clifton, Bedminster, and the out portions of the parishes of St. James, St. Paul, and St. Philip and St. Jacob, which form the suburbs. ^[1]

Bristol was created a county borough (a borough or a city independent of county council control). There were a considerable number of parishes and chapels associated and attached to it--some of which did not reside physically-speaking within the city proper, but lay outside of the city, but still within its jurisdictional boundaries. In 1888, it expanded by annexing some parts of south Gloucestershire in 1898 and 1904.

Bristol was included as part of the county of Avon along with Bath and large portions of Gloucestershire and Somerset when Avon was created in 1974. In 1996, the County of Avon was disbanded and split into four parts, namely:

1. The City and County of Bristol

2. South Gloucestershire – formed from the Kingswood and North Avon districts.

3. North Somerset – formed from the Woodspring district.

4. Bath and North East Somerset – formed from the Bath and Wansdyke districts. 

Resources

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

Many of Bristol City's parish and chapel registers have been or are being indexed and made searchable online (Church of England Church Records): England, Bristol Parish Registers, 1538-1900 at FamilySearch Historical Collections. Bristol has about 60-plus parishes and chapels within its boundary.

Census records

Census records from 1841-1891 are available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library. The first film number is 288782. To view these census images online, they are available through the following websites for a fee ($) or free:

• FamilySearch has some of the British Censuses available.
• FindMyPast ($) has all available census records including images, and is free at Family History Centers and the Family History Library and some public and academic libraries.
• Ancestry.co.uk ($) has now all available census records but free at Family History Centers and the Family History Library and at numerous public and academic libraries. The library versions are known as AncestryInstitution.com.
• The Genealogist.co.uk ($) has all available censuses and is free at Family History Centers and the Family History Library and various other libraries.
• FreeCen is a UK census searches. It is not complete and individuals are always asked to consider helping out with transcriptions.
  

Probate records

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Gloucestershire 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

Web sites

References

Contributor: Add any additional sites that aren’t mentioned above.

A wiki article describing these collections are found at:

England Bristol Church of England Parish Registers and Bishops' Transcripts (FamilySearch Historical Records)

• This page was last modified on 15 May 2013, at 22:16.
• This page has been accessed 587 times.