Bredgar, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
BREDGAR (St. John the Baptist), a parish, in the union and hundred of Milton, lathe of Scray, E. division of Kent, 4 miles (S. W. by S.) from Sittingbourne. Bredgar is a village and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, see Bredgar Wikipedia

Bredgar St John the Baptist is an Ancient Parish which includes the hamlet of Bexon and is in the Diocese of Canterbury; a map of the parish boundary is available at A church near you.

The church dates from 14th century (west door from 12th) and was restored in 1894. It is designated a grade I listed building by English Heritage British listed building.

The village and civil parish are 4 miles south west of Sittingbourne and the M2 motorway crosses the parish.

See Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 6 (1798), pp. 98-106 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

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
Bredgar 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 Bredgar available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832

Census records
Census returns for Bredgar 1841-1891

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition

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