Crayford, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent England    Kent Parishes



Parish History
CRAYFORD (St. Paulinus), a parish, and formerlya market-town, in the union of Dartford, hundred ofLessness, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W. division ofKent, 13 miles (E. by S.) from London.

Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 717-720 URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50903

Crayford is a town in the London Borough of Bexley Crayford Wikipedia

Crayford St Paulinus is an Ancient Parish and included Slade Green and Northend in the parish boundary. It neighboured Erith, Kent and Dartford, Kent Ancient Parishes as parishes on the south bank of the River Thames with neighbouring Essex Parishes of Wennington, Essex and Aveley, Essex on the north bank of the river.

The parish church of St Paulinus has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building

See Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 2 (1797), pp. 263-285 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

see Crayford North West Kent Family History Society and Crayford St Paulinus

The parish of Slade Green St Augustine was formed from this Ancient Parish in 1925 Slade Green St Augustine

Other places of worship include

Crayford Baptist Church, Bexley Lane

The Barnes Cray Baptist chapel. (1810)

North West Kent Muslim Association Mosque, Crayford High Street. The mosque serves both Bexley and Dartford Boroughs and was formerly Crayford Methodist Church whose registers dated from 1846.

St Mary of the Crays Catholic Church, Old Road The original Church was built in1842, demolished 1974 following erection of new church.

Civil Registration
See Dartford registration District

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
Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre is the Diocesan Record Office for all the Church of England Parishes within the London Borough of Bexley reference PA105 St Paulinus, Crayford 1558-1988

Kent Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

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
Census returns for Crayford 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

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
Dartford 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.

See England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Local Family History Centre
Orpington Family History Centre, Kent

Maidstone Family History Centre, Kent


 * FHC Portal: This centre has access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access in the centre to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * Publication of the restricted access images England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records) and England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) means that it is advisable to telephone the centre to reserve a computer if you wish to view these

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