Rochester Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
For a history of the Cathedral Church see Rochester Cathedral Wikipedia and Rochester Cathedral website.

The Cathedral is the seat of the see of Rochester. Rochester St Nicholas, later Rochester St Nicholas with St Clement, Kent was built in 1421 alongside the Cathedral to serve the people of Rochester. The Cathedral was part of the Benedictine monastery of St Andrew and hence not a parish church.

After the Reformation the Cathedral was refounded as the Cathedral church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary and remained without a parochial church status.

The diocese of Rochester at one time included Essex parishes but now covers West Kent as far as the Diocese of London in Surrey; some North West Kent parishes are also in the diocese of Southwark.

See England Jurisdictions 1851 for diocesan boundaries. The North West Kent Family History Society parish pages also include information about parishes in the diocese.

See Rochester North West Kent Family History Society and Rochester Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary

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.

Church records
Rochester Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary Virgin Baptisms Marriages and Burials 1657-1994 reference DRc/S digital images may be searched online at Medway Archives City Ark project http://cityark.medway.gov.uk

International Genealogical Index Christenings 1660-1672; 1694-1837 Batch (P008381) Marriages 1677-1754 Batch (M008381)

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records.

Census records
Census Returns for Rochester 1841-1891

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

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.