West Ham, Essex Genealogy

Guide to West Ham, Essex ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Ham, or West Ham, is a village, a parish, a sub-district, and a district in Essex. The village stands between Stratford and Plaistow, it is near the North Woolwich and Eastern Counties railway stations at Stratford. It has a post office, under Stratford, London East. The chapelries of West Ham are Plaistow, Barking Road , Victoria Dock , Forest Gate , Stratford St. John , Str. ST. Paul, Street Christchurch and Canning Town are within the boundaries of West Ham. The village of West Ham also contains, Upton, Grove , the Green , and Maryland Point ; as well as, the Marshes , Hallsville , Silvertown. There are a number of chapels for Independents, Baptists, Methodists, and Quakers.

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 Ham 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 Essex Record Office (online records available at Essex Archives Online).

Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office

Essex Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Victoria Docks Essex Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

All SaintsChurch St Baptisms 1653-1950 Marriages 1653-1945 Burials 1653-1854 Burials 1864,1875, 1876: ERO Baptisms 1950- date Marriages 1945- date: Not deposited

All Saints Church for the Deaf and Dumb East Rd Baptisms 1906- date Records with All Saints West Ham

St Jude Stephens Rd Built 1898 Bombed 1941

St Matthew Dyson Rd Baptisms 1896- date Marriages 1897- date: Not deposited

St Thomas Rokeby St Baptisms 1890-1948 Marriages 1891-1948: ERO

Primitive Methodist Chapel Marriages 1930-1940: ERO

St John's Reformed Episcopal Marriages 1891-1911: ERO

Poor Law Unions
West Ham Poor Law Union, Essex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex 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
Essex Ancestors - offers images of genealogical records for the county of Essex