Truro

• The Cornwall Record Office is located in the County Hall, Truro. (See the information on the county page.)
• The Royal Cornwall Museum, Royal Institution of Cornwall, is located in River Street, Truro. (See the information on the county page.)

• There is a public (municipal) cemetery for the city, and a separate crematorium at Penmount.
• The Cornwall Family History Society have published Monumental Inscriptions on-line for the municipal (public) cemetery - 4096 entries, and the Quaker Meeting House - 44 entries. The full records of burials, which include details of those whose gravestone did not exist or have been lost but who were buried in the public cemetery, are held by the City Council.

• Available census information for Truro is given mainly on each ot its parish pages (see CHURCH HISTORY below).
• RG9/4453. In the 1861 census, Merchant Shipping was treated peculiarly. Shipping Returns for Fowey, Truro and some of Penzance have been placed on-line by the Cornwall Online Census project.

• Anglican. The City of Truro now consists of four ecclesiastical Anglican parishes in addition to its cathedral:

  • St Mary's. This is the original parish covering Truro. Truro Cathedral was grafted onto St Mary's Church during the latter part of the 19th Century. Its three spires now soar over the city and are a well known landmark. The cathedral is located in OS Grid Square SW8244 and is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
  • St George's. This is a modern parish in Truro, created 1847, and is situated in the north-west part of the city. It is named after the 19th century church of St. George.
  • St John's. St John's parish is a relatively modern parish of Truro, situated in the southern part of the city. It was created from part of Truro in 1852. It is named after the 19th century church of St. John to whom the church is dedicated.
  • St Paul's. This is another relatively modern parish of Truro, created 1865. It is situated in the eastern part of the city, and is named after the 19th century church of St. Paul.

  Other parishes which are now being incorporated within Truro City are Kenwyn and St Clement.
  The Diocese of Truro was created in 1876. Before this date Cornwall had been included in the diocease of Exeter. However the new Bishop decided that his new diocease then merited a new cathedral, and work on demolishing St Mary's church began in 1880 and the new cathedral was completed in 1910. The south aisle of St Mary's church was rebuilt into the cathedral using the original stone and wood; it is now known as St Mary's aisle.
  The central tower rises to 250 feet high, as Cornwall's memorial to Queen Victoria, whilst the two western towers reach a height of 204 feet and are known as Edward VII and Alexandra Towers. The north west tower houses a peel of 10 bells.

• Roman Catholics. The dedication resurrected the medieval devotion to Our Lady of the Portal. A chapel dedicated to Mary once stood at the gate (porta) of Truro, recalling her who is "Gate of Heaven. In the fifteenth century Truro was the only place in England that had a church dedicated to Our Lady of the Portal. It was supported by its own Guild. The origins of the devotion came from Rome as far back as the sixth century. The third most important Marian shrine in Rome is the Church of Santa Maria in Portico. There, King (!) James III founded a daily Mass; its intention the restoration of English Catholicism. One of the icons of Mount Athos, venerated since the ninth century, is that of Our Lady of the Portal. (The icon is part of the religious milieu of Byzantium preserved in a monastery on this Holy Mount in Greece.) Our Lady of the Portal also became a popular icon in Moscow when a seventeenth century replica was enshrined in one of the portals" of the Kremlin. In 1964 devotion to Our Lady of the Portal was revived in Truro and the medieval Guild was firmly re-established on Sexagesima Sunday 1965.
  The dedication to St. Piran invokes the patronage of a sixth century Celtic saint whose missionary activity covered the area of the parish. His name is recognised in the name of Perranporth in the north, and Perranwell and Perranarworthal in the south of the parish. This notable Cornish saint is the patron saint of tin miners.
  In the nineteenth century a Catholic Church, dedicated to St. Piran, existed in Chapel Hill, Truro. It had been built in 1884/85 by Fr. John Grainger. Later it was served by the Canons Regular of the Lateran from Bodmin. As congregations expanded and more space was needed, some property known as "Polpeor" was purchased near the site of the Medieval Chapel of Our Lady of the Portal. Construction of a new Church began in January 1972, and the solemn blessing and opening took place on 17th May 1973.
  On each side of the main altar there is an icon painting: one portrays the Old Testament Trinity, after the style of Rublev's Ikon of 1411, and the other shows the Annunciation. (Andrei Rublev was a monk in the monastery at Zagorsk, which became one of the most renowned centres for icon painting in Great Russia, under the spiritual and cultural direction of St. Sergius of Radonezh.) This Church in Truro may be the only one in the country with a well in it. A plaque in the floor over the well suggests "Tons mariae matris pastoris et agni". Here also is a special Shrine to Our Lady of the Portal, and an unusual sixteenth century Basque statue of the Holy Mother feeding her Child.
• Non-Conformist. Within the City, there were chapels for the Wesleyan Methodists, Wesleyan New Connexion, Independents, Baptists, United Methodist Free Church, Bible Christians, Primitive Methodists, and Society of Friends (Quakers).

• The surviving church records for Truro parishes are listed on each of the four parish pages.
• LDS Church Records.
  • The LDS Church batch numbers for Truro are listed under Truro St Mary's. These are searchable by surname.
  • The IGI coverage for Truro is 1597 to 1875.
• Non-conformist Baptisms.
  • Truro Methodist New Connexion baptisms 1857 to 1906 in this city are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • Truro United Methodist (St Clement Street) baptisms 1909 to 1914 in this city are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • Truro Ebenezer New Methodist baptisms 1834 to 1837 in this city are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • Truro Bible Christian Chapel baptisms 1838 to 1901 in this city are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • Truro Wesleyan Methodist Circuit baptisms 1838 to 1898 in this city are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
• Non-conformist Marriages. Truro, St Mary Wesleyan (now St Mary Clement Street), marriage registers are in the CRO; these start at 1905. These are the only Non-Conformist records for Truro in the CRO.

The City of Truro 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.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Lake's Trade & General Directory of the City of Truro 1883.
• Lake's Trade & General Directory of the City of Truro 1888.

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Truro 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 available on-line.

• Old maps of Truro in 1832, 1835, 1902 are available at Cartophilia.
• Another map of Truro is available on-line.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SW826448 (Lat/Lon: 50.26307, -5.05167), Truro 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.

• The Royal Cornwall Gazette 1803-1950. Copies 1803-1810 are in the in the Courtney Library, Royal Institution of Cornwall (RIC), except 5 issues from 1806. Four of these can be found in the Somerset Record Office. From 1808 copies can be found in the RIC, Cornish Studies Library (CSL) (incomplete), and the Morrab Library in Penzance. From 1811, it has been microfilmed by the British Newspaper Library except 64 scattered issues all before 1923. The CSL web site claims this was published from 1801 but they may be refering to the Cornwall Gazette above. In 1951 it merged with the West Briton.
• West Briton 1810-now. This is published in Truro with county coverage. Originally it was a rival to the Royal Cornwall Gazette. A set, complete but for the first 10 issues, is in the RIC. The British Newspaper Library holds a complete set to 1830. The CSL and Truro Library have a complete set.

Apprenticeship Indentures for Truro (1770 - 1837) can be found in the Cornwall Record Office.

• The Truro Union workhouse was actually located in the parish of St Clements for Poor Law administration and parish relief. The Union Workhouse was erected 1849-1850 on Union Hill from designs by the Architect William Harris. Union Hill in Truro is now known as Tregolls Road. The Union Workhouse became St Clement's Hospital, under the National Health Service, in 1948.
• Overseers' Accounts (1764 to 1837), Settlement Papers (1761 to 1843) and Bastardy Bonds (1687 to 1834), relating to Truro, are available in the Cornwall Record Office.

Population figures are for the whole town/city.

The Cornwall Family History Society is the Genealogical Society for the county; it was formed in 1976 to assist its members in tracing their Cornish family history. Its offices are at: 5 Victoria Square, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 2RS. (UK Telephone: 01872 264044. Overseas +44 1872 264044. General enqiries can be emailed to the Secretary). There is a research library available, but it has restricted opening hours.

The City of Truro occupies some 190 acres of land.