Ashford, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
ASHFORD (St. Mary), a market-town, parish, and the head of the union of West Ashford, in the hundred of Chart and Longbridge, lathe of Shepway, E division of Kent, 20 miles SE by E from Maidstone, and 54 ESE from London. There are places of worship for Particular Baptists, the Society of Friends, the Connexion of the Countess of Huntingdon and Wesleyans.

Ashford is a town and borough in Kent, see Ashford Wikipedia Ashford St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient Parish for the market town of Ashford which included Alfred and Newton Ashford in the parish. The church is mentioned in the Domesday survey and the current church on the site dates from 1250 with restoration and enlargement in subsequent centuries. The latest restoration underway in 2011 is to provide both a place of worship for the town and parish and a performance space to seat 350 for the town and surrounding community. From this parish Ashford Christ Church was formed Christ Church Ashford Wikipedia to serve the growing population of the town.

The Centrepiece Church, Bank Street is part of the The South Kent Methodist Circuit Church Website other churches in the circuit include

Kennington United Reformed/ Methodist Church Ashford Church website

Cade Road United Reformed/Methodist Church South Ashford Church website

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

Civil Registration
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.

Registration Districts

 * 1837-1941 West Ashford Registration District
 * 1941-1974 Ashford Registration District

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Kent ($)
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Kent ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Census Records
The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.
 * Census returns for Ashford, 1841-1891
 * Ancestry UK Census Collection
 * FindMyPast Census

Land Tax

 * England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records Ashford 1780-1831

Poor Law Unions

 * West Ashford 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.


 * 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

Websites

 * Ashford Christ Church Kent Churches
 * Ashford St Mary A Church Near You
 * Ashford St Mary British History Online
 * Ashford St Mary Kent Churches
 * Christ Church South Ashford British Listed Buildings
 * Kent Online Parish Clerks