TheGenealogist completes Norfolk Parish Records
- Over 6.23 million new searchable Norfolk Parish Records released in partnership with the Norfolk Record Office
- This final tranche includes over 5.95 million records for Norfolk
- Plus more than 276,000 records relating to the boundary areas of Suffolk
- Adding to the 3.6 million individuals already released earlier
TheGenealogist has successfully completed a project to release over 9.8 million fully searchable records for the registers of baptisms, marriages, marriage banns and burials for Norfolk with images of the original registers.
It is now easier than ever to research Norfolk ancestors in the parish registers of this Eastern English county. With some of the surviving records reaching back as far as the early 1500s, this is a fantastically rich resource for family historians to use for discovering Norfolk ancestors.
Released in partnership with The Norfolk Record Office, the registers of baptisms, marriages, burials and banns of marriage cover the majority of parishes in the Diocese of Norwich. This also includes a number of Suffolk parishes in and near Lowestoft that make up the deanery of Lothingland. Also covered by this release are the parishes in the deanery of Fincham and Feltwell that were part of the Diocese of Ely in south-west Norfolk.
Examples of famous people to be found in these records include:
Edith Cavell, the First World War Nurse executed by the Germans for treason was born in the South Norfolk village of Swardeston. Her baptism can be found in the register of Swardeston for February 1866 where
her father was the vicar and performed the christening ceremony. With a single click family historians can see an image of the actual entry in the parish register.
Edith Cavell's baptism record in the Norfolk Parish Registers on TheGenealogist
Likewise, Horatio Nelson - who would grow up to become perhaps Britain’s best known naval hero of all time - was
also baptised by his clergyman father. In Nelson’s case it was in the the village of Burnham Thorpe on the North Norfolk coast in 1758.
Horatio Nelson's baptism 1758 in the Norfolk Parish Records on TheGenealogist
Another British seafaring hero, whose baptism can be found in the Norfolk parish records on TheGenealogist, is Henry George Blogg. He would grow up to become known as the “Greatest of the Lifeboatmen” and be highly decorated. In his case, however, it was not his father that baptised him. His entry in the register reveals a less than auspicious entry of this Norfolk hero into the world - the vicar wrote in the parish register of Cromer that Henry was “base born”. Blogg, however, became a skilled seaman and a lifeboatman. For the many rescues, that he took part in as the coxswain of the Cromer lifeboat, he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution no less than three times and also the RNLI silver medal four times. He was also honoured with the George Cross from the King, the British Empire Medal, and a series of other awards.
Norfolk Parish Registers on TheGenealogist: Record of Henry Blogg's baptism 1876
Five years after his birth, Henry’s mother, Ellen Blogg, married a fisherman called John Davies. It was this stepfather that taught Henry how to fish and the skills that he needed to be a highly competent seafarer. The marriage banns for Henry’s mother and stepfather can be found in the Banns book for the parish, within the new records on TheGenealogist. Their actual marriage can also be found recorded in the parish register for Cromer included in this new release.
Banns of Marriage records from the Norfolk Parish Registers on TheGenealogist
To search for your Norfolk ancestors go now to: TheGenealogist