Welcome to the Gwennap / Redruth "ON LINE PARISH CLERK". web page. This site is for everyone to enjoy as well as being a tool to help Genealogist, Historians, and others carrying out research. Our aim is to provide information from an historical viewpoint on Gwennap and Redruth two adjoining parishes in Cornwall, United Kingdom. We will endeavor to provide a number of resources here to help you with your research whilst at the same time hoping that you will share your knowledge with others through the site. We welcome constructive comment and suggestions on how we can improve its content.

This is an excerpt from W.L. Bawden's introduction to his transcription of Gwennap Parish Registers 1832-45:

“Some foreign births are entered in the baptisms to ensure that a record existed in this country, such as on page 119. [the entry is: 21st Dec 1852, baptism of Phillipa Roberts, daughter of John & Grace; miner; Caharrack; “she was 11 years old last birth-day and born in Brazil”] Miners would take mining jobs abroad, taking their wives and children with them. Quite often children would be born to them in those foreign countries. In time the family would return to Gwennap. On a permanent basis there was more emigration to foreign countries from Gwennap than from any other Cornish parish. I have carried out a cursory check to ascertain some of the most ancient families; of Gwennap from the 1522 Military Survey. The following surnames are listed for Gwennap: Penhalurick, Magor, Jose, Bawden, Treweek, Jeffery, Williams, Skewes, Thomas, Richards, Nicholls, Harris, Jenkin, Skinner, Hitchins, Angove and Michell. Descendants of these same families still reside in the parish of Gwennap. A period of over 450 years. --W.L. Bawden" [end excerpt]

Sandra is Cornish by birth and a descendent of the Vingoe family of Lands End, tracing her roots back to the 16th Century when a Nicholl Vyngow is shown on the Muster Roll as living in Sennen Parish. Over the twenty five years that we have been tracing the Vingoe family lines we have collected a lot of information on Cornwall and its people. In January 2001 a group of Cornish researchers came together to form "Cornish Online-Parish-Clerks" (OPCs). We are all volunteers who collect, collate and transcribe records for a chosen specific parish in Cornwall. The data originates from as many sources as can be accessed, including census, parish registers, cemetery records and parish histories. The emphasis is on genealogy, but is not limited to that alone. However, it takes time to transcribe and accumulate material, so not all the records will be on site for awhile. We are very grateful for the help we are receiving from Sandra Love, Althea Barker, Coral Jennings and Helen Webster who have been transcribing records to put on the site. If you visit our Sennen OPC site at http://sennencornwall.tripod.com/ you will see what we intend to produce for Gwennap & Redruth researchers in the future.

If you believe anyone you are researching came from the either of the parishes and you need help then please get in touch. If they came from another Parish in Cornwall then follow the link for the main Cornwall OPC's site at the bottom of the Contents page. You can also find other Web sites with a Gwennap or Redruth interest on their respective Links Pages

It is our intention to transcribed and place on this site the Parish records for you to browse, however, this will take time but we have been able to start the site off with the support of people who have already done some of the work. Our thanks go to them for their support. Because we are planning to add more in the future the site will be continually changing so keep coming back.

If you have any records for the parishes which you would be willing to place on the site please contact us at: sandra<at>penhalvean.freeserve.co.uk. Cut and paste the address into your browser replacing <at> with @ . This has been done in order to stop some of the span we receive.

In order to make more room for the records on this site we have made links to a number of other sites such as the Census. Will you therefore use your back buttons to return to this site after visiting them.

Finally although every care is taken when transcribing the records please check the original documents for confirmation.

George & Sandra Pritchard (nee Vingoe) OPC's Gwennap, Redruth and Sennen.

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