Dover St James the Apostle, Kent Genealogy

Guide to Dover St James the Apostle, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
DOVOR, or Dover, one of the cinque ports, a borough and market town, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the lathe of St. Augustine, E division of Kent, 15 miles SE by S from Canterbury, and 71 ESE from London. The town formerly consisted of the parishes of St. James the Apostle, St. Mary the Virgin, St. John, St. Martin the Greater, St. Martin the Less, St. Nicholas, and St. Peter; of these, the five last no longer exist, and the churches have been demolished. There are places of worship for General and Particular Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyans, Unitarians and Roman Catholics.

The Ancient Parish of St James the Apostle, St James Street included the mediaeval district surrounding the church.

During the Second World War Dover became known as "Hell Fire Corner" due to the intense bombardment from France and heavy bombing of the town.

The church of St James the Apostle and most of Church Street was totally destroyed by shelling from France. The remains of the building are scheduled as an Ancient monument see British listed building.

The church had not been used as a church since 1851 when the garrison church in the Castle had been restored. The Norman church was mainly built of Caen stone but had undergone restoration in the nineteenth century.

Edward Hasted 'The town and port of Dover', "The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent": Volume 9 (1800), pp. 475-548 at British History Online refers to the Ancient Parish history. See also kent Churches website.

Civil Registration
See Dover 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
Dover St James the Apostle parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Census Records
Census returns for Dover, 1841-1891 generic census microfilm collection in the Family History Library for the town.

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

 * 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.


 * 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