As has been said, the best place to start your family history is at home - asking your relatives if they have any facts or recollections which may be useful; looking at photograph albums, family bibles, letters or journals with relevant information, etc., and all the time bearing in mind that information based on memory alone cannot be counted on as fact.
However, when you have exhausted the above avenues, there are four main sources you can try consulting. This page gives a brief outline of these sources and provides links to pages with more detailed information on Devon sources and where to find them.
Parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials
Parish registers are simply records of baptisms, marriages and burials as recorded by the rector, vicar or curate of the Church of England parish church. They can date from 1538 to the present day.
Baptism registers are especially useful as they record the names of the child’s parents; marriage registers from 1754 onwards give the signatures of witnesses, who may be relatives of the married couple. These kinds of connections make parish registers especially useful.
These are available for most of Devon on microfiche or microfilm, although some registers have been deposited too recently to have been filmed yet.
Parish registers which are no longer in use are now generally deposited in local record offices in England and Wales. Original parish registers for the North Devon area are held at the North Devon Record Office, Tuly Street, Barnstaple. Other original registers for Devon, where deposited, are held by the Devon Record Office in Exeter, and Plymouth and West Devon Record Office in Plymouth.
Microfiche and film of filmed Devon registers are now gradually becoming available in family history research centres outside Devon, including those overseas, and can also be purchased by individuals for their own private research from Devon Record Office.
Census returns for the whole of Devon for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 are held locally at the Westcountry Studies Library, Castle Street, Exeter (tel. (01392) 384216). The Local Studies Libraries at Plymouth and Torquay, and Exmouth Reference Library, hold census returns for their own areas. North Devon Local Studies Centre at Barnstaple, which incorporates the North Devon Record Office, holds census returns covering the North Devon area.
Census returns for the whole of Devon are also available at the Family Record Centre in London. Researchers living in other parts of Britain or overseas can order Devon census microfilms or microfiche through their local Mormon Family History Centre. You can find the address of your nearest Mormon Family History Centre through the following website: http://www.familysearch.org
The returns list each person in a household, their relationships to each other, ages, occupations, and, from 1851, place of birth and marital status.
The 1851 and 1881 censuses are indexed by surname, birthplace and as enumerated. This index is available in microfiche and CD-Rom format. There is also an index to the 1851 census, produced in booklet form by the Devon Family History Society. There are microfiche indexes to most other years of the census for North Devon parishes. Indexes are found locally in the Westcountry Studies Library, North Devon Local Studies Centre at Barnstaple and Devon Family History Society's Tree House Research Centre in King Street, Exeter.
The Family Records Centre in London also holds the same microfiche and booklet indexes for Devon censuses, 1841-1881. Some parishes in the 1891 census have been transcribed and are available on-line through the Genuki Devon website. The only current index to the 1901 census is the one made available on-line.
Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths
Civil registration began in England and Wales in July 1837. Indexes to birth, marriage and death certificates for England and Wales can be searched on microfiche at the following Devon locations:
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The certificates themselves can be ordered from local District Register Offices, where the registration district is known, or, in the case of marriages, (unless the chapel, parish church or register office is known) from the General Register Office, Smedley Hydro, Southport, Merseyside.
International Genealogical Index (IGI)
This index was compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon Church) and for the UK includes mainly baptisms and marriages from about 1538 to about 1837. It can therefore be used as a finding aid for entries in original parish registers.
However, the IGI only covers about 60% of parishes in Devon.
The IGI for Devon and in some cases for other counties is held locally at the following places:
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It is also held at libraries and family history research centres in other parts of the British Isles and overseas.
There are other sources which may be useful to the family historian. For a brief outline of these.
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