Kea

The Cornwall Family History Society have published on-line Monumental Inscriptions for:

• The Parish Church - 1655 entries
• The Come-to-Good Quaker Meeting House - 5 entries.

Census information for this parish (1841 - 1901) is held by Kresen Kernow. The Cornwall Family History Society offers a census search service for its members.
Specific census information for this parish is available as follows:

• 1841.
  • The 1841 Census of Kea (HO107/147) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
    • Enumeration Districts 1-6.
    • Enumeration Districts 7 to 11 (including the detached part of Enumeration District 10).
  • LaVelda Faul has also transcribed some 1841 census entries for Kea (including Chacewater).
• 1851.
  • The 1851 Census of Kea (HO107/1910) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
    • Enumeration Districts 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d, and 1e, 1f, 1g, 1h, 1k and 1l (all Baldhu).
    • Enumeration Districts 1m, 1n, 1o (all Chacewater) and 1p (Mithian).
  • Ray Woodbine has compiled the 1851 Census for many Cornish parishes. Entries for Kea are contained in Volume 14-5.
  • The New Zealand Society of Genealogists have compiled separate surname indexes of the 1851 Census for each Cornish registration district; Kea is listed in Volume 21. The booklets are available in Cornwall at the Cornwall Centre, (formerly known as the Cornish Studies Library), and is also available in the Cornwall FHS Library from which it can be purchased.
• 1861. The 1861 Census of Kea (RG9/1562), Enumeration Districts 1 to 5, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1871.
  • The 1871 Census of Kea (RG10/2287), Enumeration Districts 1 to 4, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
  • The 1871 Census of Kea is also available from the Cornwall Family History Society.
• 1881. The 1881 Census of Kea (RG11/2314) Enumeration Districts 1 to 4, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1891. The 1891 Census of Kea (RG12/1832) Enumeration Districts 1 to 4, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.

After floating from Ireland on a granite boulder, the Irish parish church is located in OS Grid Square SW8142 and was dedicated to St Kea. In 1270 the church of Kea, with its chapels of Kenwyn and Tregavethan, was (with others) appropriated to the collegiate church of Glasney. The old church is now a mouldering ruin. It was inconveniently situated at the end of a long parish that lies south-west of the city of Truro. A church with easier access was built in 1802, and dedicated on 3rd October of that year. Unfortunately it was badly built; neither the church nor the tower was buttressed, and cracks very soon appeared. The church at Old Kea had already been pulled down when the new church was completed. Some of the granite columns were used as part of the construction of the stable at Killiow.
By 1869, it had been accepted that the church would have to be rebuilt again. On 1st November 1894, the foundation stone of the new church was laid by Viscountess Falmouth. This present church was consecrated 4th June 1896. The church possesses a fine chalice and a paten, both of French workmanship of the early 16th century. The tower of the old church on the Truro river is still standing, and is now used as an occasional chapel.

• Non-Conformist. There were Wesleyan Methodist chapels at Porthkea, Baldhu, and Hungus; The Primitive Methodist had chapels at Calenick and Coombe. The Bible Christians had a chapel at Kerley Downs. There was also a Quaker Meeting House at Come-to-Good on the border of the parish with Feock.

• LDS Church Records.
  • The LDS Church batch numbers for Kea are: C052811. These are searchable by surname.
  • The IGI coverage of this parish is 1607 - 1837; it is NOT believed to be fully included in the LDS Church's International Genealogical Index (IGI).
• The Cornwall Record Office holdings: Baptisms 1618 - 1841, Burials 1571 - 1915, Marriages 1559 - 1858, Boyd's Marriage Index 1559 - 1812, Pallot's Marriage Index 1800 - 1812, BTs 1607 - 1673.
• The Cornwall Family History Society have published on-line transcripts of:
  • Pre 1813 Marriages.
  • 1813-37 Marriages.
  • 1813-37 Burials.
• Baptisms.
  • Baptisms 1607 to 1803, and 1841 to 1901, for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility -(C-PROP).
  • The Cornish Forefathers' Society have published on CD, baptisms 1730 to 1840 for this parish which can be purchased from Parish Chest.
• Marriages.
  • The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of: Parish Marriages 1559 to 1837, which is available in Book, CD or downloadable .pdf file formats.
  • Phillimore's marriages 1653 to 1812, and marriage transcriptions 1656 to 1812, for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
• Burials. The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of: Parish Burials 1813 to 1837, which is available in Book and CD format.

The parish of Kea has been in the Truro Registration District continuously from 1st July 1837. There were sub-districts at Kea, Kenwyn, Probus, St. Agnes, St. Clement and St Just-in-Roseland, but these have now been abolished. Parishes in this registration district are: Cornelly, Cuby, Feock, Gerrans, Kea, Kenwyn, Ladock, Lamorran, Merther, Perranzabuloe, Philleigh, Probus, Ruan Lanihorne, St. Agnes, St. Allen, St. Anthony in Roseland, St. Clement, St. Erme, St. Feock, St. Just in Roseland, St. Michael Penkevil, Tregavethan, Tregony St. James, Truro St. Mary, Veryan.

The address of the Registration Office is: Dalvenie House, New County Hall, Truro, TR1 3AY.
Tel: 01872 322241.

• Photographs of Old Kea are available.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Kea to another place.

OPC Assistance. The On-line Parish Clerk (OPC) scheme operates a service to help family historians; the OPC page for this parish is on-line, from where he can be contacted by email.

The Domesday Settlements of Cornwall, a study undertaken by the Cornwall Branch of the Historical Association, has identified and located settlements listed in the Exeter and Exchequer Domesday Survey of AD 1086. The following places have been identified in Kea ecclesiastical parish:

• Goodern (Vderon, Woderon), Grid Reference 787431.
• Old Kea (Landighe), Grid Reference 844417.
• Tregavethan (Treganmedan), Grid Reference 781472.

• Map of the Truro Registration District in which the parish lies.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SW810428 (Lat/Lon: 50.244845, -5.072253), Kea which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

• Information about the Carnon Valley Mines is available on-line.
• Apprenticeship Indentures for Kea (1730 - 1820) can be found in the Cornwall Record Office.

• Kea parish was part of the Truro Union for Poor Law administration and parish relief.
• Overseers' Accounts (1766 to 1774, 1797 to 1819), Settlement Papers (1727 to 1821) and Bastardy Bonds (1729 to 1821) are available in the Cornwall Record Office.

Two parishes were created from parts of this parish - Chacewater in 1828 and Baldhu in 1847.

In the May of 1641 it was agreed and ordered that every Member of the House of Commons and House of Lords should make a protestation (declaration of loyalty) to the crown. The Protestation was printed and then distributed by the Members to their counties. The Protestation was to be made by everyone and the Rectors, Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor, had to appear before the Justices of the Peace in their Hundred to make their protestation and, on returning to their parishes, any two of them were to witness the taking of the Protestation Oath by all males over the age of 18 years. All names were listed and anyone who refused was to be noted.

The Protestation Returns of 1642 for Kea are available on-line.

The Kea Old Cornwall Society News Page is on-line.

The parish comprised 5957 acres of land.