Gillingham St Mary Magdalene, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
GILLINGHAM (St. Mary Magdalene), a parish, in the union of Medway, hundred of Chatham and Gillingham, lathe of Aylesford, W division of Kent, 1½ mile E by N from Chatham.

"Gillingham is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Rochester, in the archdeaconry of Rochester and St. Albans. The church is named for St. Mary Magdelene with registers commencing 1558.

Gillingham, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Medway district, Kent. The village stands on the river Medway, 1/2 a mile north-north-east of New Brompton rail station, and 1-1/2 mile northeast of Chatham; was known to the Saxons as Gillinga, and at Domesday as Gelingeham; had once a palace of the Archbishops of Canterbury; was a market town in the time of Edward II, and in later times; and, prior to the rise of Chatham, was an important station of the royal navy."

Gillingham St Mary Magdalene is an Ancient Parish and the parish church is the oldest building in Gillingham on Gillingham Green. Lidsing, Kent was a chapelry formed from this parish. Other places of worship Brompton, Kent Lidsing, Kent

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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.

Registration Districts

 * 1837-1941 Medway Registration District
 * 1941-1974 Chatham Registration District

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Kent ($)
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Kent ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Census Records

 * 1841-1891 Census returns for Gillingham
 * Findmypast Census ($)
 * Findmypast Census ($)

Land Tax
Images for the Borough of Whetsted available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832 Whetsted appears to be that part of Gillingham to the north east of the town in the Grange Road/Lower Rainham Road are of the modern town.

Images for Gillingham 1780-1832 are for the town and are in a separate series.

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.


 * England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records

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

Websites

 * Church of St Mary Magdalen British Listed Buildings
 * Parishes: Gillingham British History Online
 * St Mary Magdalene GillinghamKent Churches