England - Parish or Village

[MasonT78]

Hi everyone,

Im just looking for some advice regarding England records and locating where family resided. For example, my family resided in Somerset, how do I know if they are living in the "parish of" or the "village of". I have found during my research some are Parishes but are also villages. If it was the Parish do most records say "Parish of Marksbury" or if it was the village would it just say "Marskbury".

Some of the census records do say "Parish of" is there any other way I can find out what village they were living in.

My Grandfather immigrated from Marksbury and the family have always know that's where they came from, but it appears the family may have moved around a lot prior. Im trying to discover whey they actually lived.

Many thanks

[barryd]

A parish is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction a village is a civil jurisdiction. So when a Bride and Groom get married they both may be "of this parish" but living before marriage in two villages within the parish.

[barryd]

A large Parish. This one being in County Durham.

Stanhope Parish Council is the largest in England with an area of 85 square miles and has a population of 4581 at the last census in 2011. There are 2421 properties in Stanhope Parish. Stanhope Parish is situated at the heart of Weardale, most of the Parish is in the North Pennine Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB). The Parish starts at Frosterley and travels right up Weardale to Killhope...."

Sounds like a place one could retire to. But only the brave could live there in the winter.

[KGarrad]

Places mentioned as birthplaces on any census tend to be specific to a village, hamlet or town.
BMD's always refer to a Registration District - a much larger civil area, comprising many parishes.

Description of Marksbury taken fromGenUKI:
"MARKSBURY, a parish in the hundred of Keynsham, county Somerset, 7 miles S.W. of Bath, its post town, and 4 S. of the Keynsham railway station. The parish, which is of small extent, is chiefly agricultural, and includes the hamlet of Hound-street. The soil consists of loam and stone brash, with a subsoil of marl. Coal is found. The surface is hilly, and the lower grounds are watered by several rivulets. On Wingsbury Hill are remains of an ancient chapel, probably belonging to a monastery, which formerly existed here. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Bath and Wells, value £240. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient structure, with a tower containing six bells. There is a National school for both sexes, also a Sunday-school. There is a place of worship for the Wesleyans." From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)

[Old Bristolian]

If you are using parish records, registers, churchwardens accounts etc. The whole of the parish is understood. In later records, as others have said, the village may be inferred, but to find a location within the parish is impossible unless you can find land records - tithes, land tax, leases erc.
Be warned that some parishes very large, and if a family lived in a farm or hamlet at the periphery, they might attend a closer neighbouring church and have their baptisms, marriages, burials there. Also, as an example, the parish of Ashwick contained several hamlets - the church was in the tiny hamlet of  Ashwick but the largest settlement was the substantial village of Oakhill.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  The piece above about Stanhope seems to relate to the civil parish, which is different from the ecclesiastical parish, and probably not relevant to early research. I believe civil parish councils were started in about 1890?

[stanmapstone]

  The piece above about Stanhope seems to relate to the civil parish, which is different from the ecclesiastical parish, and probably not relevant to early research. I believe civil parish councils were started in about 1890?

Civil Parishes were started under the Local Government Act 1894
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_parish

Stan

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thanks Stan - my memory wasn't far wrong!