Chichester St Olave, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex     Sussex Parishes



Parish History
CHICHESTER, a city and market-town, having exclusive jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Box and Stockbridge, rape of Chichester, W. division of Sussex, 62 miles (S. W. by S.) from London. Chichester comprises the parishes of AllSaints, or the Pallant or Palatinate, containing 327 inhabitants; St. Andrew, 625; St. Martin, 282; St. Olave, 238; St. Pancras, partly within and partly without the walls, 1065; St. Peter the Great, or the Subdeanery, 5021; St. Peter the Less, 349; and St. Bartholomew Without, 297; with the precinct of the Cathedral Close, 145. These parishes were, by act of parliament in 1753, united for the better maintenance of the poor, under the inspection of guardians. There are also an extra-parochial district called Newton, formerly the Black friars, containing 123 persons; and a small extra-parochial plot beyond the walls, called St. James', and containing 40 inhabitants. There are places of worship in the city for the Society of Friends, Huntingtonians, Independents, Wesleyans, and Unitarians.

Chichester St Olave is an Ancient Parish.

Church history Chichester St Olave

The 11th century church was restored in 1851 and deconsecrated in 1956.

See also 'Chichester: Churches (Anglican)', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 3 (1935), pp. 160-164. here

The church is now deconsecrated and houses a bookshop.

The former church of St Olave and neighbouring buildings have been designated aa a group of grade I listed buildings British listed building

Chichester Sussex Online Parish Clerks(OPC)

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.

From 1837 this parish was in the Chichester registration district

Certificates can be ordered from West Sussex Centralised Certificates Office Registration Service West Sussex Record Office County Hall Chichester PO19 1RN Phone: 01243 642122

Church records
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

CHICHESTER St. Olave records held at West Sussex Record Office Bap 1642-1949 Marr 1569-1942 Bur 1569-1890 Bishop’s Transcripts 1621-1911

Link to the Family History Library Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection no results found

Census records
See Sussex Census

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. to locate local Family History Centres in UK 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.

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

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.

Poor Law Unions
Chichester Poor Law Union, Sussex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Sussex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

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