Bristol, Gloucestershire, England Genealogy

Guide to the City of Bristol, Gloucestershire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Bristol Wiki Topics

Beginning Research
Research Strategies Record Finder
Record Types
Online Records Parishes	Poor Law Unions
Local Research Resources
Bristol Record Office FamilySearch Centre

History[edit | edit source]

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.

Maritime Connections[edit | edit source]

Bristol is favorably located on the wide river Severn estuary. This river estuary is known for its high tides, especially when the river contains much 'fresh water' from rains. Because of this, sailing ships could be warped out from the dock, and could then tack easily out to the Irish Sea.

Because of its location, by the 12th century Bristol was an important port, handling much of England's trade with Ireland, including slaves. In 1247 a new stone bridge was built, which was replaced by the current Bristol Bridge in the 1760s, and the town was extended to incorporate neighboring suburbs, becoming in 1373 a county in its own right.

In the 15th century, Bristol was the second most important port in the country. A number of sailing masters left from Bristol, culminating in John Cabot's 1497 voyage of exploration to North America and the subsequent expeditions undertaken by Bristol merchants to the new world up to 1508.

One of the most heinous aspects of British history was tied to Bristol. Along with Liverpool, it became a center for the Triangular trade between Britain, Africa, and North America. In the first stage of slavery triangle, manufactured goods were taken to West Africa and exchanged for Africans who were then, in the second stage or middle passage, transported across the Atlantic in brutal conditions. The third leg of the triangle brought plantation goods such as sugar, tobacco, rum, rice and cotton back across the Atlantic, along with small number of slaves, who were sold to the aristocracy of Britain as house servants.

Places[edit | edit source]

Chapelries[edit | edit source]

Chapelry is a church or churches built in a large ecclesiastical parish to help the members attend worship services closer to their homes.
The city of Bristol consists of the following parishes and chapelries:

Bristol, All Saints
Bristol, Cathedral
Bristol, Christ-Church
Bristol, Emmanuel, St Philip
Bristol, Holy Trinity Hotwells
Bristol, Holy Trinity, St Phillip
Bristol, Redland Green Chapel
Bristol, St Augustine
Bristol, St Barnabas
Bristol, St Bartholomew
Bristol, St Clement
Bristol, St Ewen
Bristol, St Francis
Bristol, St George Brandon Hill
Bristol, St George
Bristol, St Giles
Bristol, St James
Bristol, St John the Baptist
Bristol, St Jude the Apostle
Bristol, St Lawrence
Bristol, St Leonard
Bristol, St Luke
Bristol, St Mark's, Mayor's Chapel
Bristol, St Mary-le-Port
Bristol, St Mary Redcliffe
Bristol, St Matthias
Bristol, St Michael Archangel
Bristol, St Michael Two Mile Hill
Bristol, St Nicholas
Bristol, St Paul, Portland Square
Bristol, St Peter
Bristol, St Philip & St Jacob Within
Bristol, St Raphael
Bristol, St Saviour
Bristol, St Simon
Bristol, St Stephen
Bristol, St Thomas
Bristol, Temple or Holy Cross
Bristol, St Werburgh

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

Cemeteries[edit | edit source]

1772-1882 Burials, 1772-1882(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1818-1881 Register of Graves, 1818-1881(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1840-1868 Burials in the Bristol General Cemetery, 1840-1868(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1863-1894 Cemetery of the Holy Souls, Arno's Vale, Burials, 1863-1894(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1865-1888 Burials, 1865-1888(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1865-1888 England, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Cemetery Records for the New Street Burial Ground(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1865-1897 England, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Cemetery Records for the Friars Society of Friends Burial Ground(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1865-1897 England, Gloucestershire, Bristol, New Street, Society of Friends Burial Grounds, Cemetery Records(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1866-1882 England, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Cemetery Records for the Redcliffe Pit Society of Friends Burial Ground(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1866-1897 England, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Redcliffe Pit, Society of Friends Burial Grounds, Cemetery Records(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1871-1901 Burial Registers, 1871-1901(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1883-1904 Burial Registers, 1883-1904(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
1892-1923 Miscellaneous Records, 1892-1923(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Arnos Vale Cemetery
Avon Monumental Inscriptions(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Memorial Inscriptions for ~50 parishes available online at Bristol and Avon Family History Society website - free.
Burials in Friends' Burial Ground at the Friars(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Burials in the Friends' Burial Ground, at the Friends' Meeting House, Friars, Bristol(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Certificate in Accordance With Regulation 13 as to the Removal of Human Remains From Th Property Known as the Friends' Meeting House, Princess Street, Bedminster, Bristol(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Graves and Tombstone Removals From the Jewish Burial Grounds, Temple Meads, Bristol(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Removal of Human Remains and Tombstones From Old King Street Baptist Chapel, Old King Street, Bristol(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Removal of Human Remains and Tombstones From Quakers Friars Burial Ground, Bristol(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Removal of Human Remains From the Former Friends' Burial Ground, Redcliffe Way, Bristol(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
The Register of Howlands Burial Ground Nr. Gideon Chapel, St. Pauls, Bristol(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images

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

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

Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.

Joiner Marriage Index - Gloucestershire ($)
The Genealogist Parish Registers - Gloucestershire ($)
UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

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.

1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast - index & images ($); coverage may vary
1642-1996 England, Gloucestershire Non-conformist Records, 1642-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Catholic

England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages at Findmypast — index & images ($); coverage may vary
Non Conformist Baptisms - Roman Catholic, St Joseph (later St Mary on the Quay) 1835 - 1837 available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Society of Friends

England, Gloucester, Bristol, church records for the Bristol & Somerset Society of Friends Quarterly Meeting, 1644-1837 images online at FamilySearch - free (some restrictions may apply)

Monthly Meeting of Bristol Births (1654-1837) online at Ancestry (£).
Monthly Meeting of Bristol Marriages (1659-1837) online at Ancestry (£).
Monthly Meeting of Bristol Burials (1655-1837) online at Ancestry (£).

England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Births 1578-1841, includes Bristol Monthly Meeting, online at Findmypast (£).
England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Marriages 1578-1841, includes Bristol Monthly Meeting, online at Findmypast (£).
England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Burials 1578-1841, includes Bristol Monthly Meeting, online at Findmypast (£).

Mortimer, Russell. Minute Book of the Men's Meeting of the Society of Friends in Bristol, 1667-1686 (1971) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free. Includes appendix of biographical sketches.
Mortimer, Russell. Minute Book of the Men's Meeting of the Society of Friends in Bristol, 1686-1704 (1978) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
Monthly Meeting of Bristol (1662-1687) online at Ancestry (£).

Census Records[edit | edit source]

The Inhabitants of Bristol in 1696, by Elizabeth Ralph and Mary E. Williams, 1968, online - free.

Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census Records and Indexes Online. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a FamilySearch Center or at the FamilySearch Library.

Civil Registration[edit | edit source]

Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day.

See England Civil Registration for online resources and information.

Neil Dun's FreeBMD Church Cross-reference website helps researchers identify at which churches marriages listed on FreeBMD took place.

Court Records[edit | edit source]

Veale, E.W.W. The Great Red Book of Bristol, 4 vols. (1931-1953) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
Ralph, Elizabeth. The Great White Book of Bristol (1979) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
Rich, E.E. The Staple Court Books of Bristol (1934) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
Nott, H.E. and Elizabeth Ralph The Deposition Books of Bristol, 1643-1647, 1650-1654, 2 vols. (1935, 1948) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Crime and Punishment[edit | edit source]

Lamione, Georges. Bristol Gaol Delivery Fiats, 1741-1799 (1989) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Emigration[edit | edit source]

Hargreaves-Mawdsley, R. and N. Dermott Harding. Bristol and America, a Record of the First Settlers in the Colonies of North America, 1654-1685: Including the Names with Places of Origin of More than 10,000 Servants to Foreign Plantations Who Sailed from the Port of Bristol to Virginia, Maryland, and Other Parts of the Atlantic Coast, and Also to the West Indies from 1654 to 1685 (London: R.S. Glover, 1931). FS Library Book 973 W3b.
Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Bristol Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654-1686. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1988. FS Library Book 942.41/B2 W2c; digital versions at Ancestry (£); Chronicle Barbados (free; Barbados entries only); Virtual Jamestown (free).

Bristol and Avon Strays, mainly 18th and 19th centuries, available online at Bristol & Avon Family History Society website - free.

Local Histories[edit | edit source]

Bristol Bridge

Marriage Licences[edit | edit source]

1637-1700 Marriage Bonds for the Diocese of Bristol, Excluding the Archdeaconry of Dorset, Vol. 1, 1637-1700 (1952) by Denzil Hollis and Elizabeth Ralph, online at FamilySearch Books - free]
1701-1710 Bristol Marriage Licence Bonds 1701-1710, by Roger Price, 2014, online at Bristol and Avon Family History Society website - free.
1750-1789 Marriage License Register, Diocese of Bristol, 1750-1789 online at FamilySearch - free (begins at Image 527 of 2001) (some restrictions may apply)

Military Records[edit | edit source]

Bristol suffered badly from Luftwaffe air raids in World War II, claiming some 1,300 lives of people living and working in the city, with nearly 100,000 buildings being damaged, at least 3,000 of them beyond repair. The original central shopping area, near the bridge and castle, is now a park containing two bombed out churches and some fragments of the castle, kept to remind the citizens of the havoc caused.

Newspapers[edit | edit source]

Here is a sampling of pre-1900 Bristol historical newspapers available online.

To learn how to access these newspapers, see: Richard Heaton's Index to Digitalised British and Irish Newspapers Online Beta (updated 12th September 2015).

1716-1900 - Bristol Mercury
1744 - Bristol Oracle and Country Advertiser
1744 - Bristol Oracle and Country Intelligencer
1782-1789 - Felix Farley's Bristol Journal
1793 - Sarah Farley's Bristol Journal
1808-1842 - Bristol Mirror
1829-1831 - The Bristolian
1839-1870, 1897 - Bristol Times and Mirror
1858-1950 - Western Daily Press^[2]

Current newspapers:

The Bristol Post Website includes a huge historical archive, including obituaries.
List of local Bristol newspapers

Occupations[edit | edit source]

Occupations of 18th Century Inhabitants of Bristol, by Ron Lewin, available online at Bristol & Avon Family History Society website - free.
Guttridge, George Herbert, ed., The American Correspondence of a Bristol Merchant, 1766-1776: Letters of Richard Champion (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1934). FS Library Book 979.4 B4c v. 22 no. 1
Minchinton, W.E. The Trade of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century (1957) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
McGrath, Patrick. Merchants and Merchandise in Seventeenth-Century Bristol (1955) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
Matthews, H.E. Proceedings, Minutes and Enrolments of the Company of Soapmakers, 1562-1642 (1940) available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Apprentices[edit | edit source]

Hollis, D. Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book, 1532-1565: Part 1 1532-1542 (1949), available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
Ralph, E. and N. Hardwick. Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book, 1532-1565: Part 2 1542-1552 (1980), available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
Ralph, Elizabeth. Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book, 1532-1565: Part 3 1552-1565 (1992), available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Burgesses[edit | edit source]

Bristol Burgesses 1525-1557, by Roger Price, available online at Bristol & Avon Family History Society website - free.
Missing Bristol Burgesses 1599-1607, by Ron Lewin, available online at Bristol & Avon Family History Society website - free.

Shipping[edit | edit source]

Middle Ages

Carus-Wilson, E.M. The Overseas Trade of Bristol (In the Later Middle Ages) (1937), available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Sixteenth Century

Vanes, Jean. Documents Illustrating the Overseas Trade of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century (1979), available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Seventeenth Century

McGrath, P.W. Records Relating to the Society of Merchant Venturers of the City of Bristol in the 17th Century (1952), available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.
Sacks, David Harris. The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450-1700 (1992) available online at University of California E-Books Collection - free.

Eighteenth Century

Richardson, David. Bristol, Africa and the Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade to America, 4 vols. (1986-1996), available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Nineteenth Century

Farr, Grahame E. Records of Bristol Ships, 1800-1838 (vessels over 150 tons) (1950), available online at Bristol Record Society website - free.

Probate Records[edit | edit source]

Main article: Court of the Bishop of Bristol (Episcopal Consistory)

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.