Place:Congham, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Congham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated some 10 km east of the town of King's Lynn and 55 km west of the city of Norwich.

The civil parish has an area of 11.7 km2 and in the 2001 UK census had a population of 227 in 97 households, the population increasing to 241 at the 2011 census. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the District of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

Sir Henry Spelman, the noted 17th-century antiquary, was born in Congham. He is best known for his detailed collections of medieval records, in particular of church councils. His brother Erasmus also lived in Congham, and his son Henry Spelman was an early settler and explorer of Virginia.

A river rises close to the village at Pond Farm. It is called the River Cong and is a tributary of the River Babingley. There were at one time three parish churches, St. Mary's, All Hallows' and St. Andrew's, sited in a perfectly straight line. Only St. Andrew's now stands. One Rector was Edmund Nelson, first cousin of Admiral Nelson's whose father also called Edmund Nelson. The church dates to the 13th century but was much restored in the 19th century.

Congham Oil Mill, now known as Congham Lodge, stood on the river and was built for the use of processing products from whales transported from King's Lynn docks.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Congham. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Freebridge Lynn Hundred may be useful.
• GENUKI also advises that the following lists for Norfolk are to be found in FamilySearch:

• England, Norfolk, Parish Registers (County Record Office), 1510-1997
• England, Norfolk Archdeacon's Transcripts, 1600-1812
• England, Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts, 1685-1941
• England, Norfolk Marriage Bonds, 1557-1915
• England, Norfolk Non-conformist Records, 1613-1901

• Ancestry.co.uk has the following lists as of 2018 (UK or worldwide Ancestry membership or library access required). With the exception of the index to wills these files are browsible images of the original documents. The files are separated by type and broken down into time periods (i.e., "Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812" is more than one file). The general explanatory notes are worth reading for those unfamiliar with English parish records.

• Index to wills proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich : and now preserved in the District Probate Registry at Norwich
• Norfolk, England, Bishop's Transcripts, 1579-1935
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1990
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1940

• FindMyPast is another pay site with large collection of parish records. As of October 2018 they had 20 types of Norfolk records available to browse including Land Tax Records and Electoral Registers.