Rochester St Margaret, Kent Genealogy

Guide to Rochester St Margaret, Kent ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Rochester is a town and former city in Kent for a history of Rochester see History of Rochester Wikipedia

Rochester St Margaret is an Ancient Parish in the city and Diocese of Rochester; a map of the modern parish boundary is available at A church near you

The Parish Church of St Margaret of Antioch Rochester has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building

For a history of the church see St Margaret Rochester Wikipedia.

St Peter's and St Margaret's were recombined into a joint parish in 1953 and in 1971 the parish of St Nicholas with St Clement was absorbed into it. The combined parish is now "The Parish of St Peter with St Margaret" centred on the new (1973) Parish Centre in the Delce (St Peter's) with St Margaret's being retained as a Chapel of Ease.

See Kent Archaeological Society and Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 4 (1798), pp. 153-182. Date accessed: 30 September 2013. at British History Online and Kent Churches website

From this parish was formed in 1901 the parish of Borstal St Matthew. The church of St Matthew, Borstal Street Borstal had been built in 1878 see Borstal Rochester Wikipedia and a map of the parish boundary is available at A church near you

Civil Registration
Medway Registration District

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

Rochester St Margaret of Antioch Baptisms marriages and Burials 1653-1983 reference P305 digital images may be searched online at Medway Archives City Ark project http://cityark.medway.gov.uk

International Genealogical Index
 * Christenings 1718-1812 Batch (C135121)
 * Marriages 1813-1833 Batch (M165123)

Family History Library film numbers

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

Census records
Census Returns for Rochester 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.

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