Gulval, Cornwall Genealogy

Guide to Gulval, Cornwall ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
GULVAL (St. Gulval), a parish, in the union of Penzance, W. division of the hundred of Penwith and of the county of Cornwall, 1½ mile NE from Penzance. The Wesleyans have a place of worship.

Gulval (Cornish: Lannyskli) St Wolvela is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cornwall. Other places in the parish include: Carfury and Gear.

The parish is named after the 6th century saint, Gulval, the original form of which was probably Welvela or Wolvela. Baring-Gould thought this was Wilgitha, the sister of Saint Juthwara: David Nash Ford agrees. Gilbert Hunter Doble, however, favoured an identification with one of the male Welsh missionaries, Gudwall or Gurwall who are honoured in Brittany. A life of each one is to be found in the Acta Sanctorum, June; Bollandists, 1867. Neither identification has been widely accepted by modern scholars. The parish church is dedicated to Gulval and his/her feast is celebrated on 6 June "St Gulval". http://west-penwith.org.uk/gulval3.htm.

The current church building is predominantly 12th century with subsequent additions. Most notable of these are the tower, built in 1440 and containing eight bells and a large stone lych gate that was added in 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The graveyard is famously home to the remains of local pirate and smuggler John 'Eyebrows' Thomas of Marazion, as well as to William Wingfield, MP

Civil Registration
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
Gulval parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Images of parish registers are available online at FamilySearch Images refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference P 77

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks

The history, registers and much more have been contributed by the Online Parish clerk for Gulval.

Census records
Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Penzance Poor Law Union

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cornwall Probate Records to filnd the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

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


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Gulval in GENUKI

http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/photos/img3224.htm   http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/331181 for images of the church