Thousands of Kent parish records spanning 400 years now published online

Mike Hill checks the parish registers with the help of KCC service manager Sarah Stanley.

Family history website, Findmypast, has today (April 5) announced the online publication of thousands of original parish registers in partnership with Kent County Council.

The new records have been created from more than 3,000 handwritten registers currently held at the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone. The registers have been scanned and digitised in full colour to ensure the highest possible image quality.

More than 2.6 million fully-indexed baptism, wedding banns, marriage and burial records spanning more than 400 years of Kent history are now available to search online exclusively.

By improving access to these rich documents and making them searchable for the first time, Findmypast will provide family historians from around the world with even more opportunities to discover their Kent ancestors. Researchers can now uncover details of their families past and add new generations to their family tree with greater ease.

Today’s release builds on an existing partnership between Findmypast and KCC Archives that has already resulted in the online publication of more than 2.5 million Canterbury Archdeaconry records held by the Canterbury Cathedral Archives.

These new additions join Findmypast’s Canterbury collection and existing collections of Kent Family History Society records to form the most comprehensive online repository of Kent parish registers in the word.

Findmypast’s UK Data Strategy Manager, Paul Nixon, said: “Now with more than 5 million indexed parish register entries for Kent, Findmypast really is the only show in town if your ancestors put down roots in the Garden of England. We’re thrilled to be working with the Kent History & Library Centre.”

Mike Hill, KCC’s Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services, said:We are delighted that the majority of the parish registers held by the Kent Archives service will now be available to view and search around the world for the first time, through the publication of images and indexes on FindMyPast.

“We are able to offer free access to FindMyPast in all Kent County Council libraries enabling Kent residents to use these fascinating records without cost and close to their homes.”

To find out more about Findmypast’s collections of Kent records, visit:

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