Southwick, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex     Sussex Parishes

Parish History
SOUTHWICK (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Steyning, hundred of Fishergate, rape of Bramber, W. division of Sussex, 1 mile (E.) from Shoreham. It is bounded on the east by Aldrington and Portslade, on the west by Kingston, on the north by Poynings and Edburton, and on the south by the sea. The river Adur intersects its southern portion, and the Portsmouth branch of the London and Brighton railway also passes through it. The church is principally in the Norman style; the upper part of the tower, and some smaller portions, arc of later date. In 1834 it was enlarged.

Southwick is a small town and civil parish in the Adur district of West Sussex. Southwick West Sussex Wikipedia

St Michael and All Angels Southwick Wikipedia is an Ancient Parish.

The history of the church is available at Sussex Parish Churches Southwick St Michael and All Angels

The Parish church of St Michael has been listed as a grade II British Listed building

Southwick Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Other places of worship include

All Souls Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) Congregational Church now Southwick Christian Community Church Sussex Parish Clerks Online (OPC) Methodist Church dated from 1876, closed in 1955 and subsequently demolished Southwick Methodist Church Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) St Peter &amp; St Mary (Anglican) dates from 1938 Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) St Theresa of Lisieux Roman Catholic Church Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) The Assembly Room closed 1921

see List of demolished worship places in West Sussex list of places of worship in Adur Wikipedia

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 Steyning Registration District until the 1935 reorganisation of registration services 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:

Link to the Family History Library Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
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
Steyning 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