High Halstow, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
HALSTOW, HIGH, (St. Margaret), a parish, in the union and hundred of Hoo, lathe of Aylesford, W division of Kent, 6 miles NNE from Rochester.

High Halstow is a village and civil parish on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent in the Medway borough of Kent. See High Halstow Wikipedia and Hoo Peninsula Wikipedia

High Halstow St Margaret is an Ancient Parish on the Hoo peninsula in the Medway district of Kent.

The ancient church at High Halstow is referred to in the Domesday survey and stands about 50 metres above the Medway estuary at one of the highest points on the Hoo peninsula.

The present church was built in the 13th century with later additions and the tower was rebuilt in the 18th century. The church is designated a grade I 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. 16-19 at British History Online and Kent Churches website.

See High Halstow Wikipedia

Civil Registration
This parish was part of Hoo sub 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
High Halstow parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Land Tax

 * Images for High Halstow are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832

Census records
Census returns for High Halstow 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

 * Hoo 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