Place:West Walton, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

West Walton is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is 56.5 miles (90.9 km) west of Norwich, 13.9 miles (22.4 km) west-southwest of King's Lynn and 105 miles (169 km) north of London. The nearest town is Wisbech in Cambridgeshire which is 2.6 miles (4.2 km) south of the village.

The parish of West Walton had a population of 1,659 in the 2001 UK census, increasing to 1,731 at the 2011 UK census. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

The western boundary of the parish is the course of the River Nene and also the county border between Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. On the southern boundary is the parish of Walsoken. To the north is Walpole and to the east is Marshland St. James.

West Walton was established by the time of the Norman Conquest. The village's population, land ownership and productive resources were detailed in its entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it is recorded by the name "Waltuna". The parish was held by William de Warenne with the Abbot of St Peter and St Paul, Cluny, from him; the Abbot of Ely both before and after 1066, and Oder, from Ralph de Beufour.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for West Walton. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Freebridge Marshland Hundred may be useful. The small areas defined by letters are a group of detached parts of parishes which were reorganized in 1935. They are specified in this Ordnance Survey Map of 1900.
• 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.