Discover your ancestors in marriage records dating from between 1538 and 1997 and covering 225 parishes in Kent, England, particularly for West and Mid-Kent. View the parish list for details on the full scope of this collection. For East Kent, click on Canterbury Archdeaconry marriages in Useful links and resources. From these marriages records, you can continue to build your family tree with the details you may find, such as your ancestor’s spouse’s name, marriage date, and father’s name.
Each record comprises a transcript of the original marriage register. The amount of information listed varies, but the records usually include a combination of the following information about your ancestor:
Name
Birth year
Marriage date
Marriage place
Spouse’s name
Later records may include additional details, for instance
Occupation
Residence
Spouse’s occupation
Spouse’s residence
Father’s name
Spouse’s father’s name
Names of witnesses
Notes
The record set comprises over 700,000 marriage records from 225 parishes in Kent. These records date from 1538 to 1997. Kent is a county in the southeast of England. It borders London, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex, and nominally France, midway through the Channel Tunnel. Maidstone is the county town of Kent.
Transcripts were created by Val Brown and Kent Family History Society from parish registers. For events that occurred prior to the introduction of civil registration in 1837, parish registers are the best resource for discovering your ancestors. Registration of life events – births, marriages, and deaths – began in the Church of England in 1538. In 1754, Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act passed in order to prevent clandestine marriages. This act declared that those of all denominations, except Jews and Quakers, were obligated to register their marriage with the Church of England. For this reason, even if your ancestors were Roman Catholic or non-conformist, Church of England registers are a relevant and valuable resource.