England, Kent, Parish Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

England Kent

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, ultimate rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. The England, Kent, Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts collection is available to the Family History Library, FamilySearch Centers, and to members of the supporting organization. The images can be viewed at a FamilySearch Center near you.

For those in the United Kingdom, images may also be viewed by visiting the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone, England.

What is in the Collection?
This collection will include records from 1538 to 1911.

The first of these collections consists of Parish Registers for the County of Kent. The records contain baptisms, marriages, and deaths for parishes throughout Kent. Availability of records vary by year and locality.

The second collection consists of Bishop's Transcripts for the County of Kent. The records contain yearly summaries of baptisms, marriages, and deaths for parishes throughout Kent. Availability of the records varies by year and locality, and most submissions end by the year 1900.

These projects are part of an agreement with the Centre for Kentish to digitize and publish our microfilm holdings. The images have all been scanned and delivered. We will be creating waypoint data with the help of the archive, we will publish images for FamilySearch Members and deliver the data to the archive as they are implementing the "Reading Room Solution".

For information on the Dioceses and Deaneries in Kent see the wiki article: England, Kent Dioceses and Deaneries.

Collection Content
Baptismal records generally contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Child's given name
 * Mother's given name and maiden Name
 * Father's given name and surname
 * Parents' residence
 * Father's profession or occupation

Marriage records generally contain the following information:


 * Date and place of marriage
 * Groom's full name
 * Bride's full maiden name
 * Groom's age at marriage
 * Bride's age at marriage
 * Marital status (usually Bachelor and Spinster)
 * Rank or Profession of groom
 * Residence at the time of marriage
 * Name of groom's father and his occupation
 * Name of bride's father and his occupation
 * Names of witnesses

Burial records generally contain the following information:


 * Date and place of burial
 * Name of deceased
 * Age of deceased at time of death
 * Residence of deceased
 * Place of death
 * Name of parish and county where buried

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search in the parish registers and bishops' transcripts, it would be helpful if you knew the following information:


 * Name of ancestor
 * Date of event
 * Place of event

For Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts:

To browse by image: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒ Select the appropriate "County" category ⇒ Select the appropriate "Parish" ⇒ Select the appropriate "Event Type and Year Range (with Volume)" category which will take you to the images.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

For Parish Registers:

To search by index: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * Use the estimated age to calculate a birth date.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.
 * Titles may be clues to property ownership, occupations, rank, or status within the community.
 * Be aware that, as with any index, transcription errors may occur.
 * Check for variant spellings of the names.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. In addition local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the records of nearby parishes.

General Information About These Records
Bishop's Transcripts exist because of the Order in the Constitution of Canterbury (1597) which compels churchwardens to send within one month of Easter a copy of all baptisms, marriages and burial register entries in the parish register to the bishop. In 1603 it was stipulated that transcripts were to run from Lady Day (25 March).

The Diocese of Rochester Transcripts are arranged by parish and should be contemporary copies of the parish register entries sworn by the churchwardens to be " a true and accurate account". There is variation in performance of these duties and gaps and omissions are common. It is possible that the Transcript may contain entries not found in the parish register and for this reason transcripts should be read in conjunction with parish register where both records are available.

Transcripts prior to 1812 appear to have been destroyed although some survive. Within the Diocese of Rochester the practice of sending transcripts had lapsed by 1800 and few submissions were received. The survival of parish registers therefore may be the more effective means of locating events.

The later series from 1813 is on printed form.

There are two series of Bishop's Transcripts for the Diocese of Rochester held at Kent Archives, Maidstone.

The first series are transcripts up to the year 1812 and are found under reference RT1.

The later series from 1813 are under reference RT2. The series were microfilmed at Kent Archives Maidstone in 1987 by the Genealogical Society of Utah. The process of forming entries in the catalogue for the Family History Library for this era of microfilm acquisition from England was often reliant on the information provided at the time of microfilming and accuracy of the resulting catalogue may be affected. It is advisable to check the Kent Archives catalogue which will include all years in the transcript series; microfilming was undertaken within a year range with a cut off date; later transcript years may exist which were not filmed.

The transcript series usually end within the year range for digital publication adopted by FamilySearch with respect to privacy and data protection (see the privacy section at the foot of this page).

Known Issues with This Collection
England, Kent, Bishop's Transcripts, 1560-1911known issues:

For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

England, Kent, Parish Registers, 1538-1911 known issues:

For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

For England, Kent, Parish Registers:

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation:

For England, Kent, Bishop's Transcripts:

Collection Citation:

Image Citation: