Wiston, Sussex Genealogy

Parish History
WISTON (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Thakeham, hundred of Steyning, rape of Bramber, West division of Sussex, one and one-half mile (N. N. W.) from Steyning. The church, situated in the park, is chiefly in the decorated style, and consists of a nave, chancel, and south aisle, at the east end of which is a sepulchral chapel; there are monuments to Sir William Shirley, Sir Thomas Shirley and his wife, and several of the Gorings.

A history of the church Wiston St Mary with images (the church is adjacent to Wiston Hall which is used by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for conferences and is on private land within Wiston Park and photography may therefore only be undertaken from a distance from public roads and rights of way)

The Parish Church of St Mary has been designated asa grade II* listed building British listed building

Wiston Sussex Online Parish Clerks(OPC)

See also Wiston West Sussex Wikipedia and list of places of worship in Horsham district

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.

From 1837 this parish was in the Thakeham Registration district until 1935 when that district was abolished in service reorganisation Certificates can be ordered from West Sussex Centralised Certificates Office Registration Service West Sussex Record Office County Hall Chichester PO19 1RN Phone: 01243 642122

Church records
Wiston 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).

Poor Law Unions
Thakeham 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