Whitstable, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
Whitstable is a seaside town in Northeast Kent and is within the City of Canterbury district of the county, see Whitstable Wikipedia.

Whitstable was an Ancient parish in the Hundred of Whitstable and there was a parish with detached portions anciently.

It refers to a number of Anglican churches in the modern era which serve the town and the ancient parish boundary of earlier centuries. The following churches are within the modern Whitstable parish boundaries:

Whitstable All Saints, the original Ancient Parish church of the town from which susequent parish were formed. The present church was rebuilt in 1876-1876 by Charles Barry Junior. The church of All Saints,Church Street, has been designated as a grade C listed building British listed building and has a churchyard which includes 18th gravestones with skull, hourglass or bones motifs.

Whitstable St Peter which was initially a mission church to All Saints and built 1902-1925 in stages to present church see Church History blog site and Kent Churches

Whitstable St Alphege dates from the 1840's see church website Church website and Kent Churches website

Seasalter, Kent

There are 5 churches in the Whitstable Team ministry and a map of the Whitstable parishes may be found at A church near you

Whitstable St Andrew Kent Churches website

Other faiths include:

St John's Methodist Church (former Wesley Chapel) Argyle Road, dating from 1868 and 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 8 (1799), pp. 505-517 at British History Online and Whitstable Allsaints Kent Churches website

Civil Registration
See Blean Registration District Bridge Registration District

Kent County Council (KCC) has a certificate centre at the Mansion House in Tunbridge Wells which holds all the completed registers for Kent since 1 July 1837 and can supply a certified copy of any Kent birth, death or marriage entry from any register within its custody or a Kent civil partnership registration from the government online database.

The Mansion House (Certificate Centre) Grove Hill Road Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 1EP

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records.

Family History Library film numbers

See also England, Kent, Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts (FamilySearch Historical Records)

From Spring 2012 material formerly held at Centre for Kentish Studies,County Hall,Maidstone,Kent ME14 1XX is available at Kent History and Library Centre see Kent Archives which also enables a search of the catalogue for Kent Archives material deposited at Canterbury Cathedral Archives

Land Tax
Images for Whitstable are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) 1780-1832

Images for the Borough of Harwich in the Division of St Augustine 1780-1831

Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 8 (1799), pp. 505-517 of Harwich, Kent+ at British History Online begins his description of Whitstable hundred of Whitstable, "excepting the small borough of Harwich, which the hundred of Westgate claims over".

Census records
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.

to locate local Family History Centres in UK

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

for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search. Find my Past 1911 census search

Kent Census

Poor Law Unions
Blean 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.

See England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Local Family History Centre
Canterbury Family History Centre, Kent

Maidstone Family History Centre, Kent


 * FHC Portal: This centre has access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access in the centre to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * Publication of the restricted access images England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records) and England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) means that it is advisable to telephone the centre to reserve a computer if you wish to view these

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