Canterbury Cathedral archives

Here you can browse images of Church of England parish baptisms, marriages and burials for churches in the historic Archdeaconry of Canterbury. These images cover the period 1538-2005 and make up the Canterbury Collection.

You can browse these images by parish, event and year range.

Useful information about the Canterbury parish registers

From 1841 until 2011, the diocese of Canterbury was divided into two archdeaconries: Canterbury in the east and Maidstone in the west. These registers come from Canterbury's historic archdeaconry. Before 1841, Canterbury was the only archdeaconry. In 2011, the Archdeaconry of Ashford was created, and the archdeaconry boundaries redrawn.

The records include all parishes which are within the Archdeaconry of Canterbury and consented to online publication. Please note that four parishes withheld consent, therefore, you will not find any records for them: Cheriton St Martin; Harbledown St Michael; Ramsgate St Luke; and Shepherdswell (also known as Sibertswold) St Andrew. Records for each of these four parishes can be consulted on microfilm at Canterbury Cathedral Archives.

Three ancient Thanet parishes can be found under the names St John in Thanet, St Lawrence in Thanet and St Peter in Thanet (rather than under Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs respectively).

As well as Church of England parish registers, we are also publishing a register of baptisms at the Buckland (Dover) Workhouse between 1855 and 1912. This is worth considering if your ancestors were from anywhere within the extensive catchment area of Dover Union – the parishes of Alkham, Buckland, Capel le Ferne, Charlton by Dover, Coldred, Denton, Dover, Guston, Hougham, East Langdon, Lydden, Oxney in Dover, Poulton, Ringwould, River, St Margaret at Cliffe, Shepherdswell (Sibertswold), Temple Ewell, Westcliffe, West Langdon, Whitfield and Wootton.

We are publishing baptisms to 1912 and banns and marriages to 1928. Later baptisms, banns and marriages are not being published for reasons of data protection and personal privacy.

Banns are the publications on three successive Sundays of a couple's intention to marry. Note that many entries in the Banns Registers include the date of marriage as well. The Banns Registers, however, are also interesting for identifying marriages which took place outside the parish in question (usually in the parish of the bride when different) and, of course, for marriages which, for whatever reason, were planned but never took place. The majority of marriages were preceded by banns; however, a minority were by licence and, of course, such marriages will not appear in registers of Banns.

We are pleased to be working in association with Canterbury Cathedral Archives to bring you this crucial resource for the history of Kent, which is part of the Canterbury Collection.