Riverhead, Kent Genealogy

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

Chapel History
Riverhead is a former village and now part of the built up area of Sevenoaks. The civil parish of Riverhead is in the Sevenoaks district of Kent Riverhead Wikipedia

Riverhead St Mary is an Ecclesiastical Parish formed as a chapelry in 1831 from the neighbouring Sevenoaks, Kent Ancient Parish.

The church of St Mary theVirgin was consecrated as a chapel of Ease in 1831 and was at that time within the village of Riverhead and formed part of the Diocese of Rochester. It was built upon land donated by the Amherst and Lambarde families. The church was built to the design of Decimus Burton.

The church of St Mary Riverhead has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building

See Kent Churches website

Riverhead became absorbed into the town of Sevenoaks. The civil parish is in the Sevenoaks district of Kent.

The modern parish is united with Dunton Green.Dunton Green North West kent Family History Society which contains details of other places of worship in Dunton Green.

Here's an important historical and jurisdictional perspective by Samuel A. Lewis, a well-known 19th century topographer in 1848:

"RIVERHEAD, a chapelry, in the parish and union of Seven-Oaks, hundred of Codsheath, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W. division of Kent, 1½ mile (N. W. by N.) from Seven-Oaks. It was one of at least two chapelries and which chapelry was was erected and endowed in 1831" and was attached to the ancient parish at Seven-Oaks (St Nicholas, which also see).

Civil Registration
See Sevenoaks Registration District 1837-1941 Tonbridge 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
Riverhead 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
Census returns for Sevenoaks 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
Sevenoaks 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
Orpington 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
RIVERHEAD, a chapelry, in the parish and union of Seven-Oaks, hundred of Codsheath, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W. division of Kent, 1½ mile (N. W. by N.) from Seven-Oaks.

Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Local Family History Centre
Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within reach of the Sevenoaks district, located adjacent to Orpington Station.