Forest Row, Sussex Genealogy

Guide to Forest Row, Sussex ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
FOREST-ROW, a hamlet, in the parish and union of East Grinsted, rape of Pevensey, E. division of Sussex, 3 miles (S. E.) from East Grinsted, on the road to Lewes and Tonbridge-Wells. Achapel of ease, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was erected in 1835 by subscription, containing 436 sittings; it is built of stone procured in the neighbourhood, and is a neat edifice with a tower surmounted by a spire.

Forest Row Holy Trinity is an Ecclesiastical parish which was formed originally as an 1839 chaplery built within East Grinstead, Sussex Ancient Parish and which was formed as a district in 1850 and later as a parish. Forest Row is a village and large civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex three miles south of East Grinstead and within Ashdown Forest. Forest Row Wikipedia

A history of both Holy Trinity and St Dunstan Ashurst Wood is available Forest Row Sussex Parish Churches

The church of Holy Trinity Lewes Road Forest Row has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building Forest Row Sussex Online Parish Clerks(OPC) which includes Baptist Chapel, Hartfield Road Bethesda Chapel Brambletye Chapel Cemetery Chapel Forest Chapel, Broadstone Warren Notre Dame Convent Our Lady of the Forest Catholic Church Providence Church St Richard de Wych (Ashdown Park)

See also a list of places to worship in Wealden 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.

For civil registration history see East Grinstead registration district Certificates may be obtained from East Sussex The Register Office Town Hall Grove Road Eastbourne BN21 4UG Phone01323 464780 Fax 01323 431386 email eastbourne.registrar@eastsussex.gov.uk

Church records
Forest Row 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.

Records are also available at the West Sussex Record Office and The Keep (which houses the collections of the East Sussex Record Office).

Poor Law Unions
East Grinstead 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