Where may I access original baptism, marriage and burial records for Bexley, Bexleyheath and Sidcup?
I am seventy six years old and live in Norfolk. I am able to access original online Norfolk records, applicable to my family via Familysearch and would like to access original Kent records (my late wife's family), which are not available to me online. It appears, I have to visit a regional site to view these records.
Many original parish records for Bexley, Bexleyheath and Sidcup can be viewed on Ancestry.co.uk. See:
Also, many parish registers for Kent (including parishes outside of the modern Bexley borough of London) have been digitised by FamilySearch, however as you have discovered they are not accessible to everyone from home.
If you are not a member of the LDS church, to view the records you must visit a Family History Centre. Fortunately the FHCs are located in many places throughout England. To find the nearest one to you, look at this map at Find a Family History Center. There are five FHCs in Norfolk:
Hopefully one of these centres is accessible to you. You will be able to view the Kent parish registers on a computer at any of them.
Also, although it does not include Bexley or Sidcup, some original Kent parish registers for nearby areas such as Dartford can be viewed on the Medway CityArk website.
The Kent History and Library Centre serves a the county archive, but it does not cover all of the historical county. For counties adjacent to London and where county boundaries have changed over time, records may be found in either side of the original border. Medway, Bromley, Greenwich, Bexley and Lewisham have thier own archives. The North West Kent Family History Society provides a map of the areas covered by each of these archives along with contact details. Prior to 1837 the parish of Bexley included Bexley Heath and Sidcup. The boundaries are mapped at the A Vision of Britain website, the most comprehensive resource on historical jurisdictions available.
The Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre holds the parish registers for the Church of England St Mary, Bexley. As they have been digitised, you would likely be directed to the the online copies. If you do not have an Ancestry subscription, check if you local library does.
Further to the answer above, you will find it helpful to use a parish map such as this - http://www.nwkfhs.org.uk/west-kent.gif - to establish the names and locations of the parishes you wish to search in. You are covering a fairly large area and what we know now as Sidcup was split into 3 or so Cray parishes.
Also bear in mind that the parish records are sometimes patchy so look at the introduction to any records to see what years are covered.
