Gillingham St Mary Magdalene, Kent, England Genealogy

England

Kent

Kent Parishes

Gillingham St Mary Magdalene

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

Gillingham St Mary Magdalene
Gillingham St Mary Kent
Type	Ancient Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
County	Kent
Hundred	Chatham and Gillingham
Poor Law Union	Medway
Registration District	Medway
Records Begin
Parish registers	1558
Bishop's Transcripts	1670
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery	Rochester
Diocese	Rochester
Province	Canterbury
Probate Court	Pre-1845 - Court of the Peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Deaneries of Arches, Croydon and Shoreham; Post-1844 - Courts of the Bishop (Episcopal Consistory) and Archdeaconry of Rochester
Archive
Kent Record Office

Parish History

GILLINGHAM (St. Mary Magdalene), a parish, in the union of Medway, hundred of Chatham and Gillingham, lathe of Aylesford, W division of Kent, 1½ mile E by N from Chatham.

"Gillingham is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Rochester, in the archdeaconry of Rochester and St. Albans. The church is named for St. Mary Magdelene with registers commencing 1558.

Gillingham, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Medway district, Kent. The village stands on the river Medway, 1/2 a mile north-north-east of New Brompton rail station, and 1-1/2 mile northeast of Chatham; was known to the Saxons as Gillinga, and at Domesday as Gelingeham; had once a palace of the Archbishops of Canterbury; was a market town in the time of Edward II, and in later times; and, prior to the rise of Chatham, was an important station of the royal navy."

Gillingham St Mary Magdalene is an Ancient Parish and the parish church is the oldest building in Gillingham on Gillingham Green. Lidsing, Kent was a chapelry formed from this parish.
Other places of worship Brompton, Kent Lidsing, Kent

Resources

Find Neighboring Parishes

Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map

• Type the name of the parish in the search bar
• Click on the location pin on the map
• Choose Options from the pop up box
• Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes
  

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.

Registration Districts

• 1837-1941 Medway Registration District
  
• 1941-1974 Chatham Registration District
  

Church Records

The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor.
Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England

Due to the increasing access of online records:

• Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
  
• Dates in the following table are approximate
  

Hover over the collection's title for more information

Gillingham St Mary Magdalene Online Parish Records
Collections	Baptisms		Marriages		Burials
	Indexes and images	Indexes only	Indexes and images	Indexes only	Indexes and images	Indexes only
FamilySearch Collections-Kent	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
Parish Registers-Kent	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Catalog	1700s-1800s	-	1700s-1800s	-	1700s-1800s	-
FreeREG	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s
Findmypast-Kent ($)	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
Findmypast Banns-Kent ($)	-	-	1500s-1900s	-	-	-
Ancestry-Church of England BMD-Kent ($)	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
Ancestry-England & Wales, Birth, Christening, Marriage and Death Indexes ($)	-	1500s-1900s 1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s 1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s
MyHeritage-Archdeaconry of Rochester Birth and Burial Indexes ($)	-	1500s-1900s	-	-	-	1500s-2000s
Databases with Known Incomplete Parish Coverage
Boyd's Marriage Indexes-FMP (Free)	-	-	-	1500s-1800s	-	-
National Burial Index-FMP (Free)	-	-	-	-	-	1800s-1900s

Other Websites
These databases have incomplete parish coverage.

• Joiner Marriage Index - Kent ($)
  
• Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
  
• The Genealogist Parish Registers - Kent ($)
  
• UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
  

Nonconformist Records

"Nonconformist" is a term referring to religious denominations other than an established or state church. In England, the state church is the Church of England.

• 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast - index & images ($); coverage may vary
  
• England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages at Findmypast — index & images ($); coverage may vary

Census Records

Census records from 1841 to 1921 are available online. See England Census for more resources.

Land Tax

Images for the Borough of Whetsted available at FamilySearch Records see England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments - FamilySearch Historical Records 1780-1832 Whetsted appears to be that part of Gillingham to the north east of the town in the Grange Road/Lower Rainham Road are of the modern town.

Images for Gillingham 1780-1832 are for the town and are in a separate series.

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.

• England, Kent, Wills and Probate - FamilySearch Historical Records
  

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

• Church of St Mary Magdalen British Listed Buildings
  
• Parishes: Gillingham British History Online
  
• St Mary Magdalene GillinghamKent Churches