Brookland, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
BROOKLAND (St. Augustine), a parish, in the union of Romney-Marsh, hundred of Aloesbridge, lathe of Shepway, E. division of Kent, 5 miles (W. by N.) from Romney.

Brookland is a village and civil parish in the Shepway district of Kent, see Brookland Kent Wikipedia

Brookland St Augustine is an Ancient Parish in the Diocese of Canterbury; the Parish of Brookland with Fairfield, Kent is within the Appledore with Brookland and Fairfield and Brenzett with Snargate benefice.

The church of St Augustine, High Street, Brookland has been designated as a grade I listed building British listed building

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 8 (1799), pp. 382-388 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

The church has a unique wooden detached octagonal bell turret which stands separately from the rest of the church. The original structure an open bell frame was built in the 12th century to house one large bell to warn of invasion or flooding.

In the 15th century this became an enclosed bell frame. The structure was damaged by the severe winds of 1987-1988 and the re-shingled with over 11,000 shingles.

Brookland and Fairfield were part of the ancient hundred of Aloesbridge.

Civil Registration
See Romney Marsh 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
Brookland 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 Appledore, Brookland and Ivychurch are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1831

Images for Brookland and Fairfield are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832 The bundle of returns are for " the upper half od the Hundred of Aloesbridge"; Aloesbridge is a hundred which includes Brookland and Fairfield.

Census records
Census returns for Brookland 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
Romney Marsh 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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain