Norfolk Parish Registers Browse

Before civil registration began in 1837, parish records were the main source for birth, marriage, and death records. Church of England parishes had been mandated to record every birth, marriage, and death from 1538. In practice, some parishes took decades to adopt formal records, but most records go back at least to the 16th century.

Earlier registers, before 1747, used a single volume to record all life events. By 1813, there were three separate volumes for each life event, which contained printed forms to fill out.

Most of the records are handwritten so you may find incorrect spellings or find them hard to read. Some registers have suffered damage over the centuries so pages could be water or heat damaged – or even nibbled by mice. The information recorded has varied over the years, but parish records can provide more information than simply confirmation of the event. Information also varies according to which event is being recorded.

Baptisms

• Baptism date
• Name of child
• Parents’ names – if the child was illegitimate only the mother’s name was recorded. Some records may include the mother’s maiden name.
• Occupation of father
• Place of residence

Marriages

• Names of bride and groom
• Names of witnesses
• Marriage date
• Ages of couple
• Places of residence of bride and groom
• Names of bride’s and groom’s fathers

Burials

• Name
• Date of burial
• Place of residence
• Age at time of death

Norfolk is a large county in the East of England, bordered by Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea. The county town is Norwich.

The area has been inhabited since pre-Roman times and is still a largely agricultural county. The Iceni tribe inhabited the county from the 1st century BC until the end of the 1st century AD. They revolted against the Roman invasion twice. The second rebellion, led by Iceni Queen Boudica, included the burning of Londinium.

• You can narrow your search by year or parish.

• Once you select a volume you want to search, you can use the arrows on either side of the images to browse the book, or you can use the image counter in the bottom to skip ahead.