Residents in Kent can now access 500 years of parish registers via a leading family history website.

Findmypast has scanned and digitised more than 3,000 handwritten Anglican parish registers currently held at at the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone, making them searchable for the first time.

Available in full colour, the new additions comprise of more than 2.6 million fully indexed baptism, banns, marriage and burial records.

Having been completed in partnership with Kent County Council, the registers add to the 2.5 million Canterbury Archdeaconry documents already published on Findmypast.

The fresh releases join Findmypast’s Canterbury collection and Kent Family History Society records to form what the company calls "the most comprehensive online repository of Kent parish registers in the world".

Findmypast’s UK data strategy manager, Paul Nixon, said: “Now with over seven million indexed parish register entries for Kent, Findmypast really is the only show in town if your ancestors put down roots in the Garden of England.

"We’re thrilled to be working with the Kent History & Library Centre."

A few famous faces have been found in the records including Detective Inspector Edmund John James Reid - the head of the CID in the Metropolitan Police's H Division during Jack the Ripper's crime spree in 1888.

Also referenced is Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame, the Faversham-born Second World War general who is the only person in history to win both a Victoria Cross and an Olympic Gold Medal.

• To find out more about the Kentish record collection, visit www.findmypast.co.uk