Thanington, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
Thanington is known in many records as Thanington Without as it is adjacent to the city walls of Canterbury. Thanington Without is a civil parish in the City of Canterbury district of Kent, see Thanington Without Wikipedia

The Ancient Parish church of St Nicholas Thanington is in the civil parish of Thanington Without south of the Great Stour River and is almost surrounded by large mature yew trees. It is designated as a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage and is a Norman building extended in the 13th century and restored in 1846. British listed building Thanington St Nicholas is a parish in the Thanington benefice of the Diocese of Canterbury and included Milton St Nicholas, Kent and St Faith's Mission Church within the parish boundary; a map of the parish may be viewed at A church near you

See Kent Archaeological Society and Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9 (1800), pp. 21-27. Date accessed: 21 November 2013. at British History Online and Kent Churches website

Civil Registration
See 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
Thanington 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 Thanington are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) 1780-1831 Images displayed are for Borough of Cockering in years1780-1824, later assesements on printed form for Thanington 1825-1831. Cockering was the name of the old manor and farm owned by the Cockering family until it passed into the hands of other owners.

Poor Law Unions
Bridge 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
THANINGTON (St. Nicholas), a parish, in the union of Bridge, partly within the boundary of the city of Canterbury, but chiefly in the hundred of Westgate, lathe of St. Augustine, E. division of Kent.

Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain