Otford, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
Otford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks district of Kent. Otford Wikipedia

Otford St Bartholomew was initially formed as a chapelry in neighbouring Shoreham, Kent Ancient parish and became an Ecclesiastical parish from 1723 and included Dunton Green within the parish boundary. A map of the subsequent parish boundary may be viewed at A church near you

The church of St Bartholomew Otford has been designated as a grade B listed building British listed building

See Kent Archeological Society and Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3 (1797), pp. 19-31 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

See Otford North West Kent Family History Society which includes other Anglican churches and places of worship in the Otford area and Otford St Bartholomew

Dunton Green St John the Divine was formed from this parish. Dunton Green St John the DivineKent Churches website

Here is an important jurisdictional perspective by Samuel A. Lewis-- OTFORD (St. Bartholomew), a parish, in the union of Seven-Oaks, hundred of Codsheath, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W. division of Kent, 3 miles (N.) from Seven-Oaks. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

Civil Registration
Both Otford and Dunton Green were originally in Sevenoaks registration district Sevenoaks Registration District 1837-1941;see Tonbridge 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
Otford 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 Otford 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
Sevenoaks 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

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

Local Family History Centre
Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within reach of the Sevenoaks district, located adjacent to Orpington Station.