South Bersted, Sussex Genealogy

Guide to South Bersted, Sussex ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
BERSTED, SOUTH (St. Mary Magdalene), a parish, in the hundred of Aldwick, rape of Chichester, W. division of Sussex, 6 miles (S. E.) from Chichester. The church, erected in 1400, is a plain edifice, with a tower surmounted by a low spire of shingles; in the churchyard is the tomb of Sir Richard Hotham, Knt., founder of the town of Bognor. A chapel dedicated to St. John was erected at Bognor, and consecrated in 1822.

Church history South Bersted St Mary Magdalene

The Church of St Mary Magdalen Bersted Street Bognor Regis has been designated asa grade B listed building British listed building

South Bersted Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

From this parish was formed North Bersted Sussex Online Parish Clerks (OPC) Holy Cross North Bersted

See also:

Bersted Wikipedia List of places of worship in Arun and A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 214-223. here

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 Chichester registration district

Certificates can be ordered from West Sussex Centralized Certificates Office Registration Service West Sussex Record Office County Hall Chichester PO19 1RN Phone: 01243 642122

Church records
South Bersted 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
Sutton (East Preston) 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

Websites
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SSX/SouthBersted/