Canterbury St Mary Magdalen, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
With the exception of the church tower, the 12th century church of St Mary Magdalene was demolished in 1871.

For the history of the Ancient Parish church refer to Kent Archeological Society

The church is referred to in Edward Hasted, 'Canterbury: The churches within the city and suburbs', The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 11 (1800), pp. 209-288. at British History Online

The Roman Catholic church of St Thomas, Burgate was built in 1874 on part of the site of the demolished St Mary Magdalene. A history of the church is available at Kent Family History Society

Civil Registration
See Canterbury 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
Canterbury St Mary Magdalen parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

A description of deposited records at Canterbury Cathedral Archive is available at Kent Family History Society

The records of St Thomas Roman Catholic Church Burgate are partly held in the parish and partly deposited at the Centre for Kentish Studies Maidstone for further details see Kent Family History Society

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images

Census Records
Family Search microfilm for Census Returns for the city are at Census returns for Canterbury, 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

 * Canterbury 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