Dover Castle, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
Dover Castle was an extra parochial place until the restoration of the garrison church in the mid nineteenth century. The church had been used after 1690 as storage within the castle.

The former Saxon church of St Mary-in-Castro was restored in 1860-1862 and again in the 1880's. The original church was heavily restored and stands next to the ancient Roman pharos which became the bell tower to the church. The church serves as parish church and army garrison church. The parish had been established at this time when Dover St James the Apostle, Kent had ceased to be used and the Second World war destruction of that church and the St James Street district left the Garrison church serving the parish as well.

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.