Stop Press: As of 9th October 2007 the Kent Registration Services website has been “updated” so that search results no longer show the original registration district in which the registers were held. The results now show “Kent County Council” in all cases. This “improvement” means that there will be a duplication in many of the Register Code Series and it will not always be obvious which register or district is being referred to. The method given below will not be anywhere near as useable as it was before, but I am leaving the information online anyway in the hope that it may still be of benefit in some cases. Meaningful results now depend upon knowing the registration district prior to making a search.
The usefulness of this website has been seriously diminished by this reorganisation, and this may or may not have been intended.
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As of 18th October 2007 there has been another change to the site. The search results no longer show the date of the marriage in the status bar of the browser window, and this renders the facility next to useless.
I consider this to be obviously intentional and seems a churlish reaction from KCC Registration services.
The original method is shown below:
You may already be aware of the
service offered by Kent Registration Services at
http://extranet3.kent.gov.uk/sp/rois/home.html
This
is a searchable database of Kent marriage registrations for the
period 1837 - 2002. (Medway registration district and those parts of
Kent which are now within the Greater London area are not included.
Neither are those from the Cranbrook registration district). There
are also some missing entries from other districts. (There are no
entries at all for the year 1890 for instance).
Some of you
may not be aware that you can check the date and location of many of
these marriages before you send for a marriage certificate, to lessen
the chances of ordering one which is for the "wrong
marriage"
Search results on the website show the
District, Register code number, and entry number relating to each
marriage.
"Hovering" the cursor over a name shown on
the list of results from the initial search will display the file
number in the status bar of your browser. This file number includes
the date of the marriage in the format yyyy/mm/dd. Alternatively you
can “right click” on the name and select “properties”
to get the file name. (If
your browser cannot cope with either of these two methods you can
copy and paste the complete URL from the address bar on your browser,
after
you have clicked on a
name. You will need to paste the resulting URL into a suitable text
editor such as “Word” because it will be very long. It
will, however, contain the date of the marriage).
The
exact date can then be entered on a new search to find the name of
the other person with exactly the same District, Register code
number, and entry number. (Use the "Not Sure" facility and
single vowels in the surname box). By trial and error you will be
able to find the name of the spouse who has the matching details. It
all seems a bit “long winded” the first few times, but it
becomes easier with use, and gives good results.
A collaborative effort by
Pamela Morris-Kennedy, Debra Buchanan, and myself has arrived at a
list of the register codes showing which codes relate to which
churches, and a copy of this is available for free download by
clicking on this link
(The file is an "Excel"
spreadsheet so you can add to it yourself, but you can e-mail me at
Dave@fadedgenes.co.uk
if you would like a copy of the file in "PDF" or "Word"
format).
The list is not complete,
and some of the codes relate to registers which are not location
specific, but overall I think you will be able to find a result or
two.
So having established the
names of the "Happy Couple" and the date and place of the
marriage, you can now send off to the appropriate Register Office for
a copy of the certificate, content in the knowledge that you are
ordering the right one. See this
link for details on Kent Register Offices, and this
link on the Kent Registrations website about how to order.
I hope this helps avoid
some of those "wasted" certificate orders, and enables the
funds thus saved to be used for more of the correct ones to be
ordered.
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