Gillingham St Mary Magdalene, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
GILLINGHAM (St. Mary Magdalene), a parish, in the union of Medway, hundred of Chatham and Gillingham, lathe of Aylesford, W. division of Kent, 1½ mile (E. by N.) from Chatham.

Gillingham is a town and a Unitary Authority for the Medway district (or Medway Towns as referred to locally) in Kent. Gillingham Kent Wikipedia

Gillingham St Mary Magdalene is an Ancient Parish and the parish church is the oldest building in Gillingham on Gillingham Green. Lidsing, Kent was a chapelry formed from this parish

The church dates from the 13th century with 15th century additions and restoration 1868-1869 by A W Blomfield and is designated a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage. British listed building

See Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 4 (1798), pp. 226-249 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

See Gillingham North West Kent Family History Society for other places of worship including Brompton, Kent Lidsing, Kent and Gillingham St Mary Magdalen

Civil Registration
Medway Registration District

Chatham Registration District

and registrations from July 1837 to the present day are held at

Medway district The Register Office Northgate Rochester ME1 1LS Telephone 01634 338902 Fax 01634 338913 register.office@medway.gov.uk

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
Gillingham St Mary Magdalene 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.

Land Tax
Images for the Borough of Whetstead available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832 Whetstead appears to be that part of Gillingham to the north east of the town in the Grange Road/Lower Rainham Road are of the modern town.

Images for Gillingham 1780-1832 are for the town and are ina separate series.

Census records
Census returns for Gillingham 1841-1891

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition 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. Category:England Family History Centres to locate local Family History Centres in UK Introduction to Family History Centers 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.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

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

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

Poor Law Unions
Medway 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.

See England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records

Local Family History Centre
Gillingham Family History Centre, Kent

Canterbury Family History Centre, Kent

Maidstone Family History Centre, Kent


 * FHC Portal This centre has access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access in the centre to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * Publication of the restricted access images England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records and England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records means that it is advisable to telephone the centre to reserve a computer if you wish to view these

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