Margate St John the Baptist, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent    Kent Parishes

Guide to Margate, Kent family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Margate is a seaside town in the Isle of Thanet and a civil parish in the Thanet district of Kent. See Margate Wikipedia The civil parish includes

Cliftonville, Cliftonville Wikipedia

Garlinge, Garlinge Wikipedia

Palm Bay Palm Bay Wikipedia

and Westbrook Westbrook Wikipedia.

Margate St John the Baptist is an Ancient Parish in the town. The parish boundary included Woodchurch and Garlinge.

The Parish church of St John the Baptist has been designated as a grade B listed building British listed building See also Kent Churches website

From this parish the Anglican church of St Paul, Northdown Road was formed. The church of St Paul was built in 1873-1874 and has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building See Kent Churches website

All Saints Church, All Saints Avenue, Margate dates from 1894 and has been designated as a grade C listed building British listed building

Other places of Worship in the town include

Wesleyan Methodist The former Methodist Chapel in Hawley Square is one of a group of listed buildings The former chapel has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building

The Methodist Church of St Stephen Cliftonville which dates from 1876-1878 has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building Lady Huntingdon's Chapel Baptist, Ebenezer Chapel The Cecil Square Baptist Chapel and it's Sunday School building form a group of listed buildings. The Chapel which dates from circa 1870 has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building Congregational Chapel Calvinist Chapel Quaker's Chapel, Drapers Brethren Roman Catholic Chapel

Margate Cemetery, Manston Road has a Non Conformist Cemetery Chapel which has been designated as a grade II listed building British listed building and a paired Church of England chapel British listed building

Here is an important jurisdictional perspective by Samuel A. Lewis - MARGATE (St. John the Baptist), a sea-port, market-town, and parish, in the cinque-port liberty of Dovor, of which it is a member, and in the union of the Isle of Thanet, locally in the lathe of St. Augustine, E. division of Kent, 72½ miles (E.) from London. The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The Baptists, Wesleyans, Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, the Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics, have places of worship. There is a Seamen's chapel. The Wesleyans have a small meetinghouse at Garlinge, and the Society of Friends possess one at Drapers' Hospital.

Civil Registration
Thanet Registration District

Kent County Council (KCC) has a certificate centre at the Mansion House in Tunbridge Wells which holds all the completed registers for Kent since 1 July 1837 and can supply a certified copy of any Kent birth, death or marriage entry from any register within its custody or a Kent civil partnership registration from the government online database.

The Mansion House (Certificate Centre) Grove Hill Road Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 1EP

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
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Census records
FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.

to locate local Family History Centres in UK

Introduction to LDS Family History Centers to locate outside UK.

Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search.

Poor Law Unions
Thanet 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)

Local Family History Centre
Canterbury Family History Centre, Kent

Maidstone Family History Centre, Kent


 * FHC Portal This centre has access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access in the centre to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * Publication of the restricted access images England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records) and England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) means that it is advisable to telephone the centre to reserve a computer if you wish to view these

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

MARGATE (St. John the Baptist), a sea-port, market-town, and parish, in the cinque-port liberty of Dovor, of which it is a member, and in the union of the Isle of Thanet, locally in the lathe of St. Augustine, E. division of Kent, 72½ miles (E.) from London.

Web sites

 * Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)