Sittingbourne, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
Sittingbourne is a former market town now an industrial town in the Swale district of Kent, see Sittingbourne Wikipedia

Sittingbourne St Michael is an Ancient Parish in the Diocese of Canterbury; a map of the parish boundary may be found at A church near you which also shows the subsequent church development in an expanding residential development of the town.

The church originated in the 11th century with subsequent additions in the 13th 14th and 15th centuries. In 1762 a serious fire damaged the church and it was restored by George Dance Senior. Further restoration took place in 1859 and again in 1887.

The church is designated a grade II* listed building by English HeritageBritish listed building see Kent Churches website

Sittingbourne Holy Trinity church has been designated as a grade II listed buildingBritish listed building.See Kent Churches website

From the Ancient parish ecclesiastical Parishes of Sittingbourne Holy Trinity (1867) was formed and the rebuilt Murston, Kent All Saints Church Street (1873-1874).The Church of All Saints Murston has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building

See Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 6 (1798), pp. 150-163. Date accessed: 21 October 2013. at British History Online and Kent Churches website

Here is an important jurisdictional perspective by Samuel A. Lewis -

SITTINGBOURNE (St. Michael), a parish, and formerly a corporate and market town, in the union and hundred of Milton, Upper division of the lathe of Scray, E. division of Kent, 10 miles (E, N. E.) from Maidstone. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

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

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Kent Online Parish Clerks has indexes available for select parishes. Records are also available at the Kent Archives.

Land Tax
Images for Sittingbourne available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832

Census records
Census retruns for Sittingbourne 1841-1891

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions. Category:England Family History Centres to locate local Family History Centres in UK Introduction to Family History Centers to locate outside UK. Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

Poor Law Unions
Milton Poor Law Union,Kent

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Kent 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