Kingsdown, Kent Genealogy

England

Kent

Kent Parishes

Kingsdown

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

Kingsdown, Kent
Kingsdown St Catherine Kent
Type	Ancient Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
Hundred	Milton
County	Kent
Poor Law Union	Milton
Registration District	Milton
Records begin
Parish registers: 1560
Bishop's Transcripts: 1564
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery	Sittingbourne
Diocese	Canterbury
Province	Canterbury
Legal Jurisdictions
Probate Court	Court of the Archdeaconry of Canterbury
Location of Archive
Kent Record Office

Parish History

Kingsdown is a small hamlet surrounded by the villages of Frinsted, Milstead, Doddington and Lynsted in Kent, see Kingsdown Wikipedia.

The hamlet is within the civil parish of Milstead and Kingsdown which spans the boundaries of the boroughs of Maidstone and Swale. The area around the hamlet includes the Torry Hill estate and forms part of the Barony of Kingsdown.

The Parish of Kingsdown was within the Diocese of Canterbury. The redundant church of St Catherine is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was designed by Edward Welby Pugin to replace a mediaeval church on the site and was built 1866-1877 for the first Lord Kingsdown, Thomas Pemberton Leigh. It is the only Anglican church work undertaken by Edward Welby Pugin. The church is now accessible only by a footbridge above the M2 motorway and is locked with a access by prior arrangement only. The church is designated a grade II listed building by English Heritage. The Church of St Catherine, Downcourt Road, Milstead and Kingsdown British listed building Churches Conservation Trust

See Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 6 (1798), pp. 112-116 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

This parish should not be confused with Kingsdown with Mappiscombe, Kent or Kingsdown St John, 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.

• See England Civil Registration for online resources and information.
  
  

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

Kingsdown 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
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 and images; coverage may vary

Census Records

Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census Records and Indexes Online. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a FamilySearch Center or at the FamilySearch Library.

Poor Law Unions

• Milton 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