Rochester Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent

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



Parish History
For a history of the Cathedral Church see Rochester Cathedral Wikipedia and Rochester Cathedral website.

The Cathedral is the seat of the see of Rochester. Rochester St Nicholas, later Rochester St Nicholas with St Clement, Kent was built in 1421 alongside the Cathedral to serve the people of Rochester. The Cathedral was part of the Benedictine monastery of St Andrew and hence not a parish church.

After the Reformation the Cathedral was refounded as the Cathedral church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary and remained without a parochial church status.

The diocese of Rochester at one time included Essex parishes but now covers West Kent as far as the Diocese of London in Surrey; some North West Kent parishes are also in the diocese of Southwark.

See England Jurisdictions 1851 for diocesan boundaries. The North West Kent Family History Society parish pages also include information about parishes in the diocese.

See Rochester North West Kent Family History Society and Rochester Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary

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.

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

International Genealogical Index Christenings 1660-1672; 1694-1837 Batch (P008381) Marriages 1677-1754 Batch (M008381)

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

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

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

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records.

Land Tax
Images for Rochester's boroughs are available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Borough of Eastgate 1680-1832

Borough of Eastgate and Rochester 1831

See Edward Hasted 'The city and liberty of Rochester: General history and description', The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 4 (1798), pp. 45-86 at British History Online. Hasted describes Eastgate as synonmous with Broadgate; it can be located on a modern map of the city A church near you as within the parish of Rochester St Margaret, Kent and close to the Cathedral. Hasted also describes Southgate and Cheldegate

Census records
Census Returns for Rochester 1841-1891

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition 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 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.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

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

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

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. Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions
Medway 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.

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