Bere Ferrers with Bere Alston, Devon, England Genealogy

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Guide to Bere Ferrers with Bere Alston, Devon ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Bere Ferrers with
Bere Alston
Type Ancient Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
County Devon
Hundred Roborough
Poor Law Union Tavistock
Registration District Tavistock
Records Begin
Parish registers 1538
Bishop's Transcripts 1605
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery Tamerton
Diocese Exeter
Province Canterbury
Probate Court Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Totnes
Archive
Devon Record Office


Parish History[edit | edit source]

BEER-FERRIS (St. Andrew), or Bere Ferrers, a parish, in the union of Tavistock, hundred of Roborough, Tavistock and S. divisions of Devon, 7½ miles (S. by W.) from Tavistock; comprising the ancient borough of Beer Alston.[1]

BEER-ALSTON, formerly a borough and market town, in the parish of Beer-Ferris, union of Tavistock, hundred of Roborough, Tavistock and S. divisions of Devon, 14 miles (N.) from Plymouth. The Independents and Wesleyans have places of worship here.[2]

Resources[edit | edit source]

Find Neighboring Parishes[edit | edit source]

Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map

  • Type the name of the parish in the search bar
  • Click on the location pin on the map
  • Choose Options from the pop up box
  • Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

Civil Registration[edit | edit source]

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[edit | edit source]

The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor.
Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England[edit | edit source]

Due to the increasing access of online records:

  • Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
  • Dates in the following table are approximate

Hover over the collection's title for more information

Bere Ferrers with Bere Alston Online Parish Records
Collections
Baptisms
Marriages
Burials
Indexes and images
Indexes only
Indexes and images
Indexes only
Indexes and images
Indexes only
FamilySearch Collections-Devon
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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FamilySearch Parish Registers-Devon
1500s-1900s
1500s-1900s
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1600s-1900s
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
1500s-1900s
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Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Catalog
1700s-1800s
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1700s-1800s
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1700s-1800s
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FreeREG
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
Findmypast Parish Registers-Devon ($)
1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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1500s-1900s
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Findmypast Banns-Devon ($)
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1600s-1800s
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Ancestry-Church of England BMD-Devon ($)
1500s-1800s
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1500s-1800s
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1500s-1800s
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Ancestry-England & Wales, Birth, Christening, Marriage and Death Indexes ($)
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1800s-2000s
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1800s-2000s
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1800s-2000s
Databases with Known Incomplete Parish Coverage
Boyd's Marriage Indexes-FMP (Free)
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1500s-1800s
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National Burial Index-FMP (Free)
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1800s-1900s

Other Websites
These databases have incomplete parish coverage.

Nonconformist Records[edit | edit source]

"Nonconformist" is a term referring to religious denominations other than an established or state church. In England, the state church is the Church of England.

Census Records[edit | edit source]

Census records from 1841 to 1921 are available online. See England Census for more resources.

Probate Records[edit | edit source]

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Devon 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[edit | edit source]

There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Valuable web sites are:

  • 1851 Jurisdiction Maps
  • Vision of Britain

1737 Estate Map[edit | edit source]

Annotated photograph of 1737 estate map of area around Whitsam showing fields and who farmed them. Fig 6.16, p. 151 inMining in a Medieval Landscape: The Royal Silver Mines of the Tamar Valley. By Steven Rippon, Peter Clughton and Chris Smart. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. 2009. The original is identified as a Plan of the Manor of Bere Ferrers surveyed for Lord Hobart, 1737 in the Mount Edgecumbe Papers, Cornwall Record Office - ME2424.

19th Century Map[edit | edit source]

Map showing and naming all groups of cottages and farmsteads in the parish, created from 6" to 1 mile edition of map. Text suggests that most of the places have been in existance since the medieval period - Fig. 6.13, page 146 of Mining in a Medieval Landscape: The Royal Silver Mines of the Tamar Valley. By Steven Rippon, Peter Clughton and Chris Smart. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. 2009.

Websites[edit | edit source]

Bere Ferrers wit Bere Alston on GENUKI

References[edit | edit source]

  1. Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 194-199. Adapted. Date accessed: 30 April 2012.
  2. Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England(1848), pp. 194-199. Date accessed: 30 April 2012.

Bibliography[edit | edit source]

Rippon, Steven, Peter Clughton and Chris Smart. Mining in a Medieval Landscape: The Royal Silver Mines of the Tamar Valley. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. 2009. pbk ISBN 978 0 85989 828 7. The parish was at one time the center of England silver mining, The mines opened in 1292 under direct Crown control until 1349 whereupon they were leased out until they closed in the 16th century. The book puts the mines into local and national historical context. Contains a discussion of experienced hard rock miners being brought in from the Peak District (Derbyshire) and Northeast Wales to work the mine. There are numerous maps, aerial and land photographs of the parish. Extensive bibliography of manuscripts and published resources.