Blean, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
COSMUS, ST., and DAMIAN-in-the-Blean (St. Cosmus and St. Damian), a parish, and the head of the union of Blean, in the hundred of Whitstable, lathe of St. Augustine, E division of Kent, 1½ mile NW by N from Canterbury. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

BLEAN, a parish, an ancient forest, and a district, in Kent. The parish is called also Blean Church, St. Cosmus, and St. Damian-in-the-Blean: lies on the Whitstable railway, 2 miles NW by N of Canterbury; and has a post office of the name of Blean under Canterbury. The places of worship in 1851 were 14 of the Church of England, 3 of Independents, 7 of Wesleyan Methodists, 1 of Primitive Methodists, and 1 of French Protestants.

Blean is a village and civil parish in the Canterbury district of Kent, see Blean Wikipedia and was home to the animator Peter Firmin who with Oliver Postgate produced animated television series.

Blean St Cosmus and Damian is an Ancient Parish in the Diocese of Canterbury; a map of the parish boundary is available at A church near you Church website

The parish church of St Cosmus and Damian in the Blean, Tyler Hill Road, Blean has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building

See also Village and Church history Kent Archaeological Society

Civil Registration
See Bridge 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
Blean parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Land Tax
Images for Blean available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

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

Census Records
Census returns for Blean 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

 * Blean 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