Chilham, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
CHILHAM (St. Mary), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union of East Ashford, hundred of Felborough, lathe of Shepway, E division of Kent, 6 miles WSW from Canterbury.

Chilham is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Bridge. The church is named for St. Mary with registers commencing 1558.

Chilham, a village and parish in East Ashford district, Kent. The village stands near the river Stour and the Ramsgate and Hastings railway, 6-1/2 miles southwest-by-south of Canterbury; is the Cilleham of the Saxons;  was once a market town;  and has a station on the railway, a post office under Canterbury, and a fair on 8 November.

A Roman castrum was here, and is said to have been the residence of Lucius, the Brito-Roman king; a castle of the Saxon kings succeeded the castrum, was renovated after the Conquest, and underwent demolition by Sir Thomas Cheney;  and a mansion, in lieu of this, was built by Sir W. Digges, is still standing, and forms a fine specimen of Jacobean architecture.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
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 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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 East Ashford Registration District
 * 1941-1998 Ashford 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

 * Census returns for Chilham 1841-1891
 * Ancestry UK Census Collection ($)
 * FindMyPast($)

Poor Law Unions

 * East Ashford 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.


 * See 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 British Listed Buildings
 * Chilham Parish Kent Online Parish Clerks
 * St Mary Church, Chilham Kent Archeological Society
 * St Mary Chilham Kent Churches
 * St Mary's Chilham A Church Near You