Canterbury St Mary Bredin, Kent Genealogy

Guide to Canterbury St Mary Bredin, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Canterbury St Mary Bredin was destroyed on 1 June 1942 in the German "Baedecker" raid which destroyed a large part of the central Canterbury area. The history of the church may be found at Kent Family History Society and until it's loss had been an Ancient Parish in the city.

The church is referred to in Edward Hasted, 'Canterbury: The churches within the city and suburbs', The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 11 (1800), pp. 209-288. at British History Online

The new St Mary Bredin dates from 1957 and is in Nunnery Fields.

Civil Registration
See Canterbury 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
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

For an overview of the City Canterbury Kent Online Parish Clerks.

The destruction in 1942 of the church resulted in the loss of many Victorian and twentieth century registers. The Canterbury Cathedral archive holdings are summarised at Kent Family History Society.

FamilySearch microfilm holdings are not readily pin pointed due to the hierarchy of the currently available catalogue online, the search terms England, Kent, Canterbury produce 206 microfilm holdings.

Archdeacon's transcripts, 1563-1812; Bishop's transcripts, 1612-1922 St Mary Bredin original records housed at the Canterbury Cathedral Archives, Canterbury, Kent.Some early pages damaged.Canterbury Cathedral Archives no.: DCa/BT/41; DCb/BT1/49; DCb/BT2/55

Census records
Family Search microfilm for Census Returns for the city are at Census returns for Canterbury, 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

Poor Law Unions
Canterbury 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