Crayford, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
CRAYFORD (St. Paulinus), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union of Dartford, hundred of Lessness, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W. division of Kent, 13 miles (E. by S.) from London.

Crayford is a town in the London Borough of Bexley Crayford Wikipedia.

Crayford St Paulinus is an Ancient Parish and included Slade Green and Northend in the parish boundary. It neighboured Erith, Kent and Dartford, Kent Ancient Parishes as parishes on the south bank of the River Thames with neighbouring Essex Parishes of Wennington, Essex and Aveley, Essex on the north bank of the river.

The parish church of St Paulinus 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 2 (1797), pp. 263-285 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

see Crayford North West Kent Family History Society and Crayford St Paulinus.

The parish of Slade Green St Augustine was formed from this Ancient Parish in 1925 Slade Green St Augustine.

Other places of worship include:

Crayford Baptist Church, Bexley Lane

The Barnes Cray Baptist chapel. (1810)

North West Kent Muslim Association Mosque, Crayford High Street. The mosque serves both Bexley and Dartford Boroughs and was formerly Crayford Methodist Church whose registers dated from 1846.

St Mary of the Crays Catholic Church, Old Road. The original church was built in 1842, demolished 1974 following erection of new church.

Civil Registration
See Dartford registration District

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
Crayford 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.

Census records
Census returns for Crayford 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

Genealogy From Periodicals
Squires, R.D. From Norfolk to London. Family tree of Robert James Squires and Mary Ann Syzling, and descendants with surnames.

Tucker, Hill, Clark, De Vigie, Thompson, Read, Fitzwilliam Birch, Land, Brooks. Family move to Snetterton, Hockham, London - Southwark, and Crayford, Kent. Article dated 1851-1971, and is found in The Norfolk Ancestor, old series, vol 5.pt.4, page 78-79. Family History Library Ref. 942.61 B2j vol.5, pt. 4.

Poor Law Unions
Dartford 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
Orpington 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

Websites
Crayford on GENUKI