Chalk, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
CHALK (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of North Aylesford, hundred of Shamwell, lathe of Aylesford, W division of Kent, 1¾ mile ESE from Gravesend.

Chalk is a village in the municipal borough of Gravesend in the Gravesham district of Kent, see Chalk, Kent Wikipedia.

St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient Parish in the Gravesend district of Kent and Diocese of Rochester. The church lies some distance from the village and dates from the 12th century with later restoration and has been designated as grade B listed building British Listed Building.

Charles Dickens spent his honeymoon here with Catherine Hogarth and wrote the early installments of The Pickwick Papers here. The forge which has been designated as a listed building by English Heritage is the model for the cottage of Joe Gargery in Great Expectations.

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3 (1797), pp. 457-471 at British History Online and Kent Churches website.

Civil Registration
North Aylesford Registration District Strood Registration District Strood and Hoo Registration District 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
Chalk parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Census records
Census Returns for Chalk 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

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives. The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats, merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search.Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions

 * North Aylesford Poor Law Union, Kent (renamed Strood)

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. Gillingham Family History Centre, Kent Canterbury Family History Centre, Kent Maidstone Family History Centre, Kent
 * See England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * 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
Chalk on GENUKI