Canterbury Holy Cross Westgate, Kent Genealogy

Guide to Canterbury Holy Cross Westgate, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Canterbury Holy Cross is an Ancient Parish in Canterbury. HOLY CROSS WESTGATE church, so called both from its dedication and situation, stands just within the city gate, called Westgate, on the south side of the street, almost adjoining the city wall. It is a large church, but low, consisting of three isles and a chancel, having a square tower at the west, end in which are five bells.

Canterbury St Dunstan, Kent with Holy Cross is the modern united benefice.

The church was declared redundant in 1973 and converted into a new Council Chamber in 1978.

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

 * 1837-1910 Bridge Registration District
 * 1910-1912 Canterbury 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 Canterbury, 1841-1891
 * Ancestry UK Census Collection
 * Findmypast Census Records

Land Tax

 * England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832 Canterbury Holy Cross Westgate

Poor Law Unions

 * Bridge 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.

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

 * Canterbury: The churches within the city and suburbs British History Online
 * Canterbury, Holy Cross Westgate GENUKI
 * Holy Cross British Listed Buildings
 * Holy Cross, Canterbury Kent Churches