Grain, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
St James Grain is an Ancient Parish on the Isle of Grain at the easternmost point of the Hoo peninsula in the Medway district of Kent.

The church is 12th century in origin with later restoration in subsequent centuries and has been designated a grade I listed building by English heritage.British Listed Building

The Isle of Grain constitiutes a civil parish but is mostly marshland which has a defense tower, Grain Tower accessible by a tidal causeway and industrial areas including an oil refinery and electricity generating station.

See Grain Kent Wikipedia Hoo Peninsula Wikipedia

See Kent Archeological Society and Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 4 (1798), pp. 250-258 at British History Online

Isle of Grain North West Kent Family History Society and [Grain St James]

Civil Registration
This parish was part of Hoo sub district and registrations from July 1837 to the present day are held at

Medway district The Register Office Northgate Rochester ME1 1LS Telephone 01634 338902 Fax 01634 338913 register.office@medway.gov.uk

Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

International Genealogical index Christenings 1813-1856 Batch (C167021) Marriages 1813-1837 Batch (M167021)

St. James at Grain Baptisms Marriages Burials 1653-1981 reference P314 digital images may be searched online at Medway Archives City Ark project http://cityark.medway.gov.uk

Family History Library film numbers

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records.

Census records
[https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/show?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fcatalog-search-api%3A8080%2Fwww-catalogapi-webservice%2Fitem%2F508024+ Census returns for Isle of Grain-St. James, 1841-1891]

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal: Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions. to locate local Family History Centres in UK to locate outside UK. Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search. Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions
Hoo Poor Law Union, Kent

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Kent Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.