Sheerness, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
Sheerness Holy Trinity is an Ecclesisatical Parish formed in 1851 from a former chapelry in Minster in Sheppey, Kent Ancient Parish. Other places in the parish include: Marine Town, Banks Town, Blue Town, and Mile Town.

The church was originally built in 1835 and 1836 by G.L.Taylor from stock brick. The church has been designated grade C by English Heritage.

The dockyard church of St Paul Blue Town is within the parish. The parish was divided by order in Council dated 25 March 1873 The church was damaged by fire in 1881 and again a century later and is now ruined.



Here is an important jurisdictional perspective by Samuel A. Lewis -

SHEERNESS, a sea-port, market-town, and chapelry, in the parish of Minster, union of Sheppy, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the liberty of the Isle of Sheppy, Upper division of the lathe of Scray, E. division of Kent, 21 miles (N. E.) from Maidstone, and 50 (E. by S.) from London. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, and Roman Catholics; and a synagogue.

Civil Registration
Kent County Council

Registration Services Invicta House County Hall Maidstone Kent ME14 1XX Telephone 08458 247 400 http://www.kent.gov.uk are developing online search for all birth marriages and deaths as a result of a community volunteer effort. Not all events are capable of search but the index is updated annually. Kent County Council (KCC) has a certificate centre at the Mansion House in Tunbridge Wells which holds all the completed registers for Kent since 1 July 1837 and can supply a certified copy of any Kent birth, death or marriage entry from any register within its custody or a Kent civil partnership registration from the government online database.

The Mansion House (Certificate Centre) Grove Hill Road Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 1EP

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

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Kent Online Parish Clerks has indexes available for select parishes. Records are also available at the Kent Archives.

Census records
See Kent Census

Genealogy
Fletcher, John S. A Portsea Connection. History and family tree of John Fletcher 1809-1895 and Sarah Ansell 1805-1848. The Fletchers of Sheerness, Kent and South London and their maritime link with Portsea. Photo of John George Fletcher 1857*1949 and Mary Ann Margaret Pritchard, 1857-1945. Photo of Arthur Henry Jennings Read 1860-1930 and some of the family named, outside his shop at 94 Essex Rd. Islington, about 1914. Article in The Hampshire Family Historian, vol. 15, part no. 4, Feb 1989, pages 256-260, FHL Ref 942.27 B2h

Genealogy
Fletcher, John S. A Portsea Connection. History and Family Tree of John Fletcher 1809-1895 and Sarah Ansell 1805-1848. Fletchers of Sheerness, Kent and South London, and their Maritime link with Porsea, photo of John George Fletcher 1857-1949, and Mary Ann Margaret Pritchard 1857-1945, also of Arthur Henry Jennings Read 1860-1930 and some of the family named outside his shop at 94 Essex Road, Islington, about

1914. Article in The Hampshire Family Historian, vol. part 4. February 1989, pages 256-260, FHL Ref 942.27 B2h

Poor Law Unions
Sheppey 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