Brancaster, Norfolk Genealogy

Guide to Brancaster, Norfolk ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Brancaster St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient parish in the diocese of Norwich. It is one of 124 surviving round tower churches in Norfolk.

An early 19th century and 20th century restoration to the church have been made.

Brancaster is a village and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. The civil parish of Brancaster comprises Brancaster itself, together with Brancaster Staithe and Burnham Deepdale. The three villages form a more or less continuous settlement along the A149 at the edge of marshland fringing Brancaster Bay and the Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve. The villages are located about 3 miles (5 km) west of Burnham Market, 22 miles (35 km) north of the town of King's Lynn and 31 miles (50 km) north-west of the city of Norwich.

For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

BRANCASTER (St. Mary the Virgin), a parish, in the union of Docking, hundred of Smithdon, W. division of Norfolk, 4½ miles (W. N. W.) from Burnham-Westgate, and 122 (N. N. E.) from London.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.


 * Docking 1837-1938
 * King's Lynn 1938-1974

Church records
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Norfolk Record Office reference PD 379/ 1-9, 13-14

This parish's registers do not appear on FamilySearch Historical Records as no microfilm for the parish is held A search of the FamilySearch Catalogue identifies the following Archdeacon's transcripts:

Archdeacons transcripts, 1725-1812 Microfilm copies of original records in the Norfolk Record Office, Central Library, Norwich, Norfolk, England.

Baptisms 1725-1811 Marriages 1726-1811 Burials 1725-1812 FHL BRITISH Film 1526809 Item 14

Non-Conformist Records

 * 1613-1901 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Nonconformist churches
Wesleyan Methodist

Primitive Methodist

Genealogy From Periodicals
Elgar, Dennis. "They Did Not Move Around Much Before 1900." History of William Elgar and Susan Rolin, starting in 1801, with moves to Binham, Gunthorpe, Tasburgh, Engfield, Hales, Bedford, Leeds Yorkshire, with surnames Massingham, Butlar, Ramm, Livick, Brier, Prewett, Sheppard, Gilbert, Mills, Nicholson, McClarty. dated 1801-1978.Article in The Norfolk Ancestor, vol. 7 pt.11, Dec 1995, pages 432-435, Family History Library Ref. 942.61 B2j v, 7 n.6-13

Poor Law Unions
Docking Poor Law Union, Norfolk

Norfolk Poor Law Unions

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Norfolk Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Tax Records
1664 Hearth Taxes: Transcribed Marg Keable and housed on Norfolk Transcription Archives

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites

 * Brancaster on GenUKI