Fordwich, Kent Genealogy

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

Parish History
FORDWICH (St. Mary), a parish, and a member of the town and port of Sandwich, in the union of Bridge, locally in the hundred of Downhamford, lathe of St. Augustine, E division of Kent, 2 miles E by N from Canterbury. Fordwich St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient Parish and is a redundant Anglican church, now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

Fordwich is the smallest place in England with a town council although from 1880 until the 1972 local government reorganization it lost that status and Mayor and Corporation. It is the landing place on the River Stour for Caen Stone to be used in the construction of Canterbury Cathedral. The modern parish of Sturry with Fordwich and Westbere with Hersden parish boundary Sturry, Kent.

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
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * 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

 * 1837-1974 Bridge 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

 * Ancestry UK Census Collection ($)
 * 1841-1891 Census returns for Fordwich
 * Findmypast Census ($)

Poor Law Unions

 * Bridge 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.


 * 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 the Virgin, Fordwich, Kent Churches Conservation Trust
 * Fordwich Parish Kent Online Parish Clerks
 * St Nicholas A Church Near You
 * St Mary Church, Fordwich Kent Archeological Society
 * St Mary The Virgin Fordwich Kent Churches
 * The town and parish of Fordwich British History Online]