Opening of the Kent History & Library Centre, Maidstone, Kent, Monday 23 April 2012. A partial Index to marriages 1837 - 1911 of the City Ark, Medway Ancestors parish registers. Calendar of Patent Rolls: Henry III to Henry IV, 1216 - 1452.

Opening of the Kent History & Library Centre, Maidstone, Monday 23 April 2012.

The Centre opens at 9am on 23 April and visitors are invited to come along and be there to for the grand opening and the displays and activities on offer. The day will culminate in an author event at 7pm with Kent thriller writer Elizabeth Haynes and book giving as part of World Book Night.

Further details can be found at Kent History and Library Centre Opening 

A partial Index to marriages 1837 - 1911 of the City Arc, Medway Ancestors parish registers.

Medway Ancestors, Medway Council's project that has images of the original parish registers in its custody, can be found on the web site CityArk. The registers extend from Dartford and Gravesend in the west to Rainham in the east and focusing on the Medway Towns.

This is an amazing resource that is free for all to use and download. The draw back is that though all the images are available for each parish they are searchable only by date. Having said that it is one of the very few places that copies of original parish registers can be searched and downloaded free of charge.

However, there is a partial Index of the marriages within the parishes on City Ark at Medway Ancestors which can help you narrow down any search for a marriage. Generally speaking these are marriages that occurred between 1837-1911 and cover such Registration Districts as Gravesend, Hollingbourne, Hoo, North Aylesford, Strood plus others. By clicking on the surname index you can download a pdf index giving the bride and grooms names, date of marriage and there is a link to copy of the original parish register page.

Calendar of Patent Rolls: Henry III to Henry IV, 1216 - 1452.

If you are lucky enough to have ancestors that you have tracked back to the 1400's and earlier, or you wish to see what may exist in Medieval records about your surname this site is a goldmine.

Calendar of Patent Rolls: Henry III to Henry IV, 1216 - 1452: details of grants, deeds etc issued by a King or his Ministers. They are fully searchable (OCR) an are completely free to search, view and download. These are the Project of Professor G.R. Boynton and the University of Iowa Libraries. The site states "These files are available for teaching and research. There should be no charge for using them. All we ask is that you acknowledge our project as you use them".