From FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk)
OVER 2 MILLION LOCAL RECORDS REVEAL EAST KENT’S FASCINATING PAST
STATE OF THE ART LOCAL ARCHIVE CENTRE REOPENS AFTER REFURBISHMENT
For the first time today, records covering baptisms, marriages and burials from Canterbury’s past have been made fully searchable online by leading family history site findmypast.co.uk.
The Canterbury Collection of parish records dating back to 1538 has been released to coincide with the reopening of the renovated Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library reading room and contains records of almost 900,000 baptisms, 100,000 banns, 500,000 marriages and 700,000 burials.
Among the famous figures who appear in the records are dramatist Christopher Marlowe, cricketer Fuller Pitch, who was described as “The greatest batsman ever known until the appearance of WG Grace”, poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Sir George Rooke, Admiral of the Fleet who captured Gibraltar.
One register, for St Alphege Seasalter, includes odd and sometimes cutting entries about the parishioners by the vicar, Thomas Patten; for example, a note about the marriage in 1744 between John Housden “a young gape-mouthed lazy fellow” and Hannah Matthews “an old toothless wriggling hagg.”
Debra Chatfield, a family historian at findmypast.co.uk said: “The Canterbury Collection of records, some of which date back to 1538, is an extraordinarily rich resource for family and local historians and is an important resource for tracing the history of the East Kent area. Having them published online and so easily searchable on findmypast.co.uk is a really exciting opportunity for people to gain access to the records.”
Cressida Williams from Canterbury Cathedral Archives added: “We are really pleased that these fascinating records are now available online for anybody interested in family and social history for the East Kent area. Records of baptisms, banns, marriages and burials document the most significant moments in people’s lives and looking through the records gives 21st century family and social historians a really interesting window through which to view the past.”
All of the registers for the historic archdeaconry of Canterbury are deposited at Canterbury Cathedral Archives, in the care of the Dean and Chapter (except for the registers of Ash with Westmarsh, which are held locally). Registers for the historic archdeaconry of Maidstone are held by Kent County Council at the History and Library Centre in Maidstone.
The Canterbury Collection is available on all of findmypast’s international sites as part of a World Subscription.
(With thanks to Debra Chatfield)
UPDATE: Just noticed you can search for them in Welsh as well as English.
Chris
My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. For my other genealogy books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.
Perhaps they've been a bit hasty. I've been searching through the Canterbury baptisms for more than a week now and am having some serious troubles with index entries linking to the wrong images. The image I seek is still not found, despite going backwards and forward through many images, starting from the incorrect one. I resorted to browsing the specific set and found all 84 pages were identical, with just the title entry. I hope that my reports to FMP will rectify this soon or else I'll have to pay a researcher to get the parish register entry for me.
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