Kings County, Rhode Island Genealogy

Kings county was formed in 1729 from the southern portion of Providence County, in 1781 the name was changed to Washington county. Reminants of Kings county still exist today as can be seen in this photo of the 'Kings County Court House' posted on Flickr.com.

This area had multiple claims made on the land over the course of time by various English colonies up until the 1650s, namely the Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay colonies at this time period.

The results of these claims forced the hand of King Charles II who had to step in and dismiss all the claims. King Charles II finalized the whole charter of Rhode Island in 1663. This charter is housed in the state capitol building.

Records for this area would be located in Washington County. A good place to begin research for this time period would be the USGenWeb Project. For further information on this land area go to Washington county.