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Towns & Parishes |
This is a maritime county, and one of the most beautiful districts in this island; it includes within its boundaries numerous objects replete with interest, and towns of high importance, magnitude and beauty. It is situated on the south-east extremity of Great Britain, opposite to France, from which it is distant (at its nearest point, Dover,) about twenty-four miles. Its figure is irregular, but approaches more to the trapezium than to any other. On the north it is bounded by the river Thames; on the east side, and part of the south, it opens to the German ocean and British channel; on the remainder of the south side it is skirted by Sussex, and on the west by Surrey. From east to west (i.e. from the North Foreland to Deptford,) it is about sixty-three miles in length; and in breadth, from the point of Dungeness to the North Foreland, nearly forty miles; while, from the central sides, it is not more than twenty-five wide. The ambit of the county is about one hundred and seventy-four miles; and its area comprises 1,537 square miles, or 983,680 statute acres. In size it ranks as the ninth county in England, and in population as the sixth
-- Pigot & Co.'s Royal National and Commercial Directory and Topography of the county of Kent, September, 1839.
-- Facsimile edition (ISBN 0-9504069-5-3) © Michael Winton 1993If you would like a longer quote, try this one from Bartholemew's.
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A good starting point is the web page for the Kent County Council Archive, Local Studies and Museums Service. These pages include the Centre for Kentish Studies in Maidstone and the East Kent Archives Centre in Whitfield, just outside Dover.
For details of Canterbury Cathedral Archives see the Archives web pages on the Canterbury Catherdral site.
For information on the area around the Medway Towns, have a look at Medway Council's CityArk site.
John Townsend deals in antiquarian books and specialises in genealogy books. His site is organised by county.
Steve Archer has produced a very useful round-up of the available census records for Kent - and where/from whom they are available.
Brett Langston has put online details of Kent's Registration Districts and the towns and villages served by each.
This section is still "work in progress" ...
The flysheet of the 1839 edition continues ...
"... comprising classified lists of all persons in trade, and of the nobility, gentry and clergy, resident in the towns and principal villages in the above counties. An account of every mode of convenance by railway, road and water; Post-Office regulations, &c."
Alec Whitfield has compiled indexes to surnames and place names for the Kent volume of the 1823 and 1839 editions which have been republished and are fairly readily available to researchers.
1840 Janet and Richard Mason have transcribed parts of the Pigot 1840 Directory.
1936 Janet and Richard Mason are in the process of transcribing the 1936 Kelly's Directory for Thanet
There is a terrific selection of local and trade directories spanning the period from 1750 to 1919 on the Historical Directories website.
As a general pointer to email lists covering this (or any other) county have a look at this list.
Jo Morris maintains this list of people with specific resources in which they are willing to perform look-ups. Note it is not a research exchange scheme.
The Kent Archaeological Society has put online Volume 3 of the Victoria County History of Kent. This includes the text of, and the index to, the Kent Domesday survey.
This BBC page may help get the distinction between Kentish Men and Men of Kent clear in your mind: http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/places/features/manofkent_kentishman.shtml
Hazel Basford is researching the Kent VADs (Voluntary Aid Detachments) during WWI and has put a lot of information about these units online at http://www.juroch.demon.co.uk/kentvad.htm
There are several Family History Societies covering Kent, some have very localised interests but the bulk of the county is divided between the Kent FHS and the Nort West Kent FHS.
For contact details please check their web sites as lhttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mrawson/probate.htmlisted on the GENUKI Societies page.
This first list is of a very small selection of (North-East Kent) places for which I have been given some BMD extracts:
Here is a full list of towns and parishes in Kent that has been assembled by Tim Arguile. It includes links to the parishes pages set up by the North West Kent FHS (these include pictures of the parish churches) and other links will be added as time and opportunity permit.
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Please use tis link to report errors in, and submit additions to, this page.
Last Update:2008-04-07 © GENUKI and Malcolm Austen.
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