Forest of Dean Christ Church, Gloucestershire Genealogy

Guide to Forest of Dean Christ Church, Gloucestershire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
DEAN, FOREST of, a liberty, in the hundred of St. Briavell's, W. division of the county of Gloucester, comprising the divisions and walks of Denby, Herbert, Little Dean, Speech-House, Worcester, and York. There are four ecclesiastical districts in the Forest, formed in 1842; the churches are respectively dedicated to Christ, the Holy Trinity, St. John, and St. Paul, and are within the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, the three first being in the patronage of the Crown, and the last in that of the Bishop.

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

Non-Conformist Churches

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images
 * 1642-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Probate Records
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.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain