Place:Fersfield, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Fersfield is a village in the English county of Norfolk. It was the home parish of Francis Blomefield (1705-1752), whose History of Norfolk documents the history of much of Norfolk. His magnum opus of 11 volumes, An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk can be found online as Norfolk, Topographical History courtesy of British History Online.

Since 1935 the village forms part of the parish of Bressingham and Fersfield (more commonly just Bressingham).

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Fersfield from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1871-72:

"FERSFIELD, a parish in Guiltcross [registration] district, Norfolk; 2¼ miles N of the river Waveney and the boundary with Suffolk, 4 WNW of Diss, and 5 WNW of Diss [railway] station. Post town, Kenninghall, under Thetford. Acres: 1,386. Real property: £2,182. Population: 295. Houses: 63. The manor belongs to the Duke of Norfolk. The land was nearly all covered with wood in the time of Edward III. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £400. Patron: Charles S. M. Kyrle, Esq. The church is ancient, and has a tower."

RAF Fersfield is a former World War II airfield located between Fersfield and Winfarthing which was closed after the war and briefly used as a motor racing track before being returned to agricultural use.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Fersfield. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• GENUKI also supplies a map illustrating the individual parishes of Diss Hundred.
• 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.