Dover Castle, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
"Dover St. Mary in the Castle or Dover-Castle, is an extra-parochial liberty in Dover borough and district, Kent. A school-church for the garrison, after designs by Moxon, was opened in 1858. Acres, 137. Pop., 954. Houses, 8. Barracks are here; and 692 of the pop. were military.

DOVER, a town and a district in Kent. The town stands on the coast, under chalk cliffs, at the mouth of the rivulet Dour, the end of Watling-street, and the terminus of two railways, 15-1/2 miles SE of Canterbury. It confronts Calais; is the nearest port of England to France; and has been noted, from very early times, as a main point of communication with the Continent."

The former Saxon church of St Mary-in-Castro was restored in 1860-1862 and again in the 1880s. 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.

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 == Resources ==

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

 * 1837-1934 Dover 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

 * Census returns for Dover, 1841-1891
 * Ancestry UK Census Collection ($)
 * FindMyPast Census ($)

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.


 * 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

 * Dover GENUKI
 * Dover Parish Kent Online Parish Clerks
 * St. Mary in Castro, Dover Castle A Church Near You
 * The town and port of Dover British History Online