Kent history online
More and more material relating to Kent’s history is
being provided online so it’s never been easier to get
your historical research started. The information available
includes indexes, lists, transcriptions as well as digital images
of records, photographs, maps and prints.
Ancestry
Library Edition
Free access to Ancestry is provided in all Kent libraries and at
the new Kent History and Library Centre. This gives access to all
census records between 1841-1901 for the whole country and includes
Kent. Ask at
your library for access.
Information on over 600,000 records and historic collections. We
have begun adding images to some of the records.
New! British Newspaper Archive - Community
Edition
(all libraries, no
remote access)
A partnership
between the British Library and Brightsolid online publishing to
digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British
Library's vast collection over the next 10 years.
So far it includes the
following archives for Kent newspapers:
- Dover Express - 7 August 1858 to 30 December
1949
- Kentish Gazette - 28 May 1768 to 25 December
1883
- Whitstable Times & Herne Bay Herald - 5
January 1867 to 31 December 1904
- Kentish Chronicle - 9 July 1859 to 28 December
1867
See the up-to-date
titles list.
Please note: Free access is restricted to
library computers and you will need to register for an
individual account. We have a limited number of concurrent licences
across the county; to enable a maximum of people to benefit, the
product will log you out following 10 minutes of inactivity.
Almost 88,000 pages of records of county council meetings dating
back to 1889 have been digitised and are now available. These are
particularly interesting in the period up until 1930 and cover a
wide range of subjects including health, transport, finance as well
as the operation of the county council during the two World
Wars.
Exploring Kent’s Past resources
Find my Past - Community Edition
View around 750 million records including birth, marriage and
death records, the complete UK census collection (including the
official 1911 census), millions of parish records dating back as
far as 1538, a vast military records collection spanning
1656-1994, migration records etc. Ask at
your library for access.
Please note: Our subscription excludes memorial
scrolls and the Living Relatives database. Our license states
that usage is for research into a user’s own family history
only, and not for any commercial or other purpose whatsoever
and that accessing records on behalf of 3rd parties is not
permitted.
Kent Births, Marriages and Deaths
Kent History Source
In partnership with Rochester Diocese and
Family Search many of
the parish records for the Rochester Diocese area have been
digitised and are available online in the Kent History and
Library Centre. This will eventually be made available in all
libraries in Kent.
Origins UK
Produced in partnership with Origins, this provides access to
indexes for over 40,000 records of West Kent wills, 1440-1857, and probate
inventories for the whole of Kent, 1571-1842. These records
are a wonderful source for family and local history. At the Kent
History & Library Centre only, ask at the desk for
access.
You can also find other Kent and national websites of
interest in our online reference
library, which also gives access
to more general information resources available free in
Kent libraries and remotely using your library card
- for example the Dictionary of National
Biography, historical newspapers via Gale News
Vault, Who Was Who and Credo
Reference (for Debretts' Peerage and Baronetage and
Debrett's People of Today).
Access digitised copies of the South Eastern Gazette
1852 - 1912.
As well as the following:
- Daily Mirror 1903 - 1980
- Daily Mirror Academic 1903 - current
- Daily Express 1900 - current
- Sunday Express 2000 - current
- Church Times 1863 - 1889; 1939 - 1945; 2000 - current
- The Watchman 1835 - 1884
- Daily Worker 1930 - 1945
- Morning Star 2000 - current
- World War Two 1933 - 1945 (comprised of wartime editions of the
Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Fascist Week, Action!, Blackshirt,
Yorkshire Post and Daily Worker)
