Chatham, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
Chatham St Mary Dock Road Chatham is an Ancient Parish ; the church  was declared redundant in 1974 when the parish church of St Mary Island church took over serving the parish.

The church dated from a rebuild of 1884-1887 but stands on the site of a former Saxon church and contains two grade II listed tombs designated by English Heritage.

The church functioned for some time as the Medway Heritage Centre.

Luton Christchurch was formed from this parish see Luton North West Kent Family History Society and Luton, Kent

Here is an important jurisdictional perspective by Samuel A. Lewis. CHARTHAM (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Bridge, hundred of Felborough, lathe of Shepway, E. division of Kent, 3 miles (S. W. by W.) from Canterbury; containing, with the chapelry of Horton, 974 inhabitants. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.CHATHAM (St. Mary), a borough, market-town, and parish, and the head of the Medway union, partly within the jurisdiction, and adjoining the city, of Rochester, but chiefly in the hundred of Chatham and Gillingham, N. division of the lathe of Aylesford, W. division of Kent, 8 miles (N. by E.) from Maidstone, and 30 (E. by S.) from London St. John's church, of the Doric order, with a tower, and containing 1624 sittings, of which 1090 are free, was completed in 1821. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians; also a Jews' synagogue.

Civil Registration
Medway Registration District Chatham Registration District and registrations from July 1837 to the present day are held at

Medway district The Register Office Northgate Rochester ME1 1LS Telephone 01634 338902 Fax 01634 338913 register.office@medway.gov.uk 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
Chatham 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 Chatham 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
Medway 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
Gillingham Family History Centre, Kent

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

Websites
Chatham on GENUKI