Dover St James the Apostle, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
The Ancient Parish of St James the Apostle, St James Street included the mediaeval district surrounding the church.

During the Second World War Dover became known as "Hell Fire Corner" due to the intense bombardment from France and heavy bombing of the town.

The church of St James the Apostle and most of Church Street was totally destroyed by shelling from France. The remains of the building are scheduled as an Ancient monument.

The church had not been used as a church post 1851 when the garrison church in the Castle had been restored. The Norman church was mainly built of Caen stone but had undergone restoration in the nineteenth century.

Civil Registration
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
Family History Library film numbers

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

Census records
Census returns for Dover, 1841-1891 generic census microfilm collection in the Family History Library for the town

FamilySearch has census index collections in Records collections online.

Poor Law Unions
Dover 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

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.