West Thorney, Sussex Genealogy

Guide to West Thorney, Sussex ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
THORNEY, WEST, a parish, in the union of West Bourne, hundred of Bosham, rape of Chichester, West division of Sussex, 7½ miles West by South from Chichester. This place, also called Thorney Island, is situated nearly in the center of the great estuary termed Chichester harbour, and communicates with the small port of Emsworth, on the main land, by a causeway passable at low water for horses and carriages. The church is an ancient edifice, chiefly in the early English style, with a fine Norman tower at the west end; the chancel is separated from the nave by a screen and rood-loft. The interior was wholly restored in 1839, chiefly at the expense of the Rev. C. P. Lyne, rector. On the exterior of the north wall are three large circular arches, now stopped up, evidently part of an aisle or chantry chapel, supposed to have belonged to a religious house near the church, the remains of which are now incorporated in a farmhouse.

West Thorney St Nicholas is an Ancient Parish in on Thorney Island, the southern peninsula of land in Chichester Harbour West Sussex.

The church has been designated a grade I listed building British listed building

history and images

West Thorney Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) and St Nicholas includes batches in the International Genealogical Index.

West Thorney Wikipedia

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
West Thorney parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the West Sussex Record Office and The Keep (which houses the collections of the East Sussex Record Office).

Census records
See Sussex Census

Poor Law Unions
Westbourne Poor Law Union, Sussex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Sussex 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

Websites
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SSX/WestThorney/