Cornwall Family History

Find your Cornish ancestors and relatives with this list of links and resources to family history, genealogy and local history records.

Archives

  • Cornwall Archives
    Kresen Kernow (‘Cornwall Centre’) is home to the world’s largest collection of documents, books, maps and photographs related to Cornwall’s history. Everyone is welcome to visit and explore these amazing collections.
    Kresen Kernow is a state-of-the-art new archive centre built in the shell of the former Redruth Brewery. As well as 14 miles of shelving to store over 1.5 million of Cornwall’s treasured archives, the centre has exhibition spaces, learning rooms and a digitisation suite. Visitors can carry out research, pop in and browse, or take part in our varied activity programme featuring workshops, courses and fun family events.

Births, Marriages & Deaths

Burials & Cemeteries

Census Records

  • Census 1841-1921
    Search the census records from 1841-1921, plus the 1939 Register with over 276,000 Cornwall residents in this great census substitute.
  • FreeCen
    Has a good, but not complete, selection of free records to search and view.

Criminals and Convicts

Electoral Registers

Forums

Heraldry

Historical Directories

Local History

Maps

Military Records

Newspaper Archives

Occupations

Societies and Groups

  • Cornwall Family History Society
    A good place to start or continue your Cornwall family history research. There are monthly events and meetings plus a quarterly journal.

Surnames

Taxation

Wills and Probate

Workhouses & Poor Law