Hi Frank, St Mary Portsea is the original parish on Portsea Island dating from about 1170. Several churches were built on the site, the present one in 1889. The church is sometimes referred to as St Mary's Kingston since that is the name of the district of Portsmouth in which it is located. This is more or less in the centre of Portsea Island making it a little difficult for parishioners to get to hence the construction of other churches at first close to the Dockyard and later in the developing suburban areas such as Southsea. Many of the new churches were assigned parishes carved out of the parish of Portsea. St Thomas Portsmouth is the parish church of what is sometimes called Old Portsmouth, the area at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. This settlement dates from the end of the 12th century and became the only compact "town" on Portsea Island until housing and so on grew rapidly outside the Royal Dockyard, a little further up the Harbour, at the end of the 18th century. St Thomas became the parish church in 1320 and was raised to cathedral status in 1927. Until the latter part of the 19th century Portsmouth and Portsea were separate walled towns. The were not finally amalgamated until 1926 when the city of Portsmouth was created, taking in all of Portsea Island. It's an island because it is separated from the rest of Hampshire by a narrow channel. Hope this helps, Peter Gawn Sechelt, B.C., Canada. > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 09:13:25 +0200 > From: "Frank Lyn" <franklyn@tiscali.co.za> > Subject: [PORTSMOUTH-GOSPORT] Portsea parishes > To: <ENG-HAM-PORTSMOUTH-GOSPORT@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <000901c8b9dc$da84a950$6ff617c4@franklynyh8ts7> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Greetings all > > Tracing my family's background is turning into an enthralling journey of > discovery! It appears that my mother's ancestors lived in and around the > Portsmouth area for a couple of centuries!! My Mom knew none of this, only > that her family were "British". > > Anyway... many of my clan listed on IGI were born, or baptised, in > "St.Mary's, Portsea", or "St.Thomas, Portsea". Am I correct in assuming > that > St.Mary's and St. Thomas were parishes of Portsea? > > Best wishes > Frank Early > South Africa.