Norfolk Family History Society Coat of Arms

Parish Register Transcriptions

This project began in 1994 and aimed at providing transcripts for the period 1813 – 1837. However the energy and enthusiasm of the transcribers has resulted in a much wider span of years being tackled in the majority of parishes. We have transcripts in booklet form relating to parts of the registers of nearly 400 Norfolk parishes, roughly half the total. In many cases this has produced baptismal, marriage, banns and burial transcripts with wide gaps that have failed to cover the early records. This is being addressed as and when the opportunity presents. The Transcripts are available for viewing at Kirby Hall and to some extent, via the Research Team, to every member.

The huge number of parish records to be transcribed makes this project a challenge. Manuscript and typed methods of recording have been replaced almost entirely by computers. This technology is ideal for the purpose of compiling transcripts, but has added complexities, due to the variety of software programs used before we could achieve some standardisation. An ever-changing environment, especially the Internet, and the limitations of voluntary input, has made the Project difficult to administer. Responding to demands in one area often leads to significant delays in others. In taking on the Parish Register Transcription project, the Society decided we should concentrate on completing the baptism, marriage, banns and burial records for Norwich Parishes. This is well in hand, some Norwich Parishes are close to printing, subject to final items being submitted, others are taking longer due to poor condition of the records and required cross-checking. Nevertheless, the overall direction is forwards.

The project expanded the Society’s collection of parish register transcripts. Volunteers worked from microfiche loaned by the Norfolk Family History Society and followed formatting guidelines to produce clear and uniform baptism, marriage, banns and burial transcripts which were originally spiral-bound into booklets, but are now being put into rigid cloth cover, steel gripped, binders. The page design (based on templates in Excel or works database) has been altered to suit the four books required to cover Parish Records which are being upgraded to cover extra years, in some cases beyond 1900.


We are unable to provide copies of Parish Register Transcripts for members who cannot get to the Society's Kirby Hall library as the task is beyond our physical resources. There are a few exceptions, known as the Monograph Series, (30 Norfolk Parishes) these booklets cover the period 1558-1813 and can be purchased from the Bookshop. This comprises the computerisation of past transcription work for which no computer data exists - basically the old booklet collection and some early transcriptions at Kirby Hall. This is a mammoth task certain to take many years and fraught with all the difficulties of working with material which is in constant demand. As some of you are aware the Monograph series is in a type face which is not pleasing to the reader’s eye; these are being changed into a more up to date font, assistance is needed with this work as well.

Accuracy

We apply the usual caveat that all transcripts must only be regarded as Aids to Further Research and never assumed to be entirely accurate. Researchers using them are reminded that, in general, they have not been double-checked. Norfolk has something like 760 parishes, about half remain to be done. The completed booklets already occupy perhaps 30 square feet of shelving in Kirby Hall library and simply maintaining them in reasonable condition for visiting members is as much as the existing volunteers can be expected to achieve. The systematic checking of such a huge flow of transcripts against the original parish registers has never been regarded as feasible, instead we have relied upon transcribers who have demonstrated a careful and diligent approach to their work coupled with random sample checks. The majority of parish register transcripts are either indexed, chronologically or alphabetically sorted, and have become a very useful and popular asset.

NOTE

To avoid disappointment, anyone contemplating making a special journey to view the Parish Register collection should:

before setting out. At any one time a number of parish transcripts are absent from the shelves while being upgraded.