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England Somerset  Glastonbury

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



History
Glastonbury is a very ancient town. It is located in the western regions of the British Isles, and was never conquered by the Romans. William the Conqueror also never really entered this region, and it was left to later kings to finally assimilate it into the kingdom later known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, that dates back to the Bronze Age

In Pre-Roman times, it was part of a loosely federated group of Celtic or Germanic peoples, spreading from Ireland, through Wales, Scotland, Devon and Cornwall, and continuing through Brittany, Normandy, and modern day Belgium, Holland, and Northern Germany. They were not barbaric in nature, but settled in small villages and towns. It is believed that there were schools and even institutes of higher learning we might call Universities in southwest England, Brittany and Normandy.

Centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironside's coronation as King of England in 1016. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, including the Tribunal, George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn and the Somerset Rural Life Museum, which is based in an old tithe barn, are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century.

Cemeteries (Civil)

 * Glastonbury Cemetery


 * Glastonbury Wells road Cemetery


 * Historic England Beckery Chapel and Cemetery

Church Records
According to very strong traditional and mythological indicators, as well as materials presently at Glastonbury Abbey, Christianity came to Glastonbury at a very early date. The first wattle church was reputed to have been built in 67 AD.

The abbey itself was founded in the 7th century and enlarged in the 10th century. It is one of the oldest Christian locations in England.

Parishes

 * Church of St. John the Baptist.


 * Church of St. Benedictine


 * Glastonbury Abbey. While this is now a ruin, it is a major historical site in the UK,with hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Non Conformists
Glastonbury is not a large town. However it is known for its pagan and Celtish following and these are particularly active during the solstices and the summer months. The following non Conformist groups are active:


 * Catholic
 * First Christian Church
 * Grace Community Church

There are communities of non Christian religions including the following:


 * Buddhist
 * Muslim
 * Sikh

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.


 * UK BMD: Somerset


 * Forebears Glastonbury


 * Somerset Parish Records