Place:Wiggenhall St. Mary the Virgin, Norfolk, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Wiggenhall St. Mary the Virgin from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WIGGENHALL-ST. MARY-THE-VIRGIN, a parish, with Saddlebow hamlet, in Downham [registration] district, Norfolk; on the river Ouse, 3½ miles NW by N of Watlington [railway] station, and 4½ SW of [King's] Lynn. Post town: [King's] Lynn. Acres: 2,807. Real property: £5,332. Popuation: 307. Houses: 63. The property is divided chiefly among three. Saddlebow House is the seat of W. H. Allen, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £160. Patron: the Lord Chancellor. The church is ancient. There is a parochial school."

The parish of Wiggenhall St. Mary the Virgin was situated mostly to the north of Wiggenhall St. Germans with a detached section between Wiggenhall St. Germans and Wiggenhall St. Mary Magdalene. In 1935 the size of the parish of Wiggenhall St. Mary the Virgin was reduced when the southern sections were absorbed by the parishes of Wiggenhall St. Mary Magdalene and Tilney St. Lawrence. Since then, probably in 1974, the remaining (northern) part of the parish has been absorbed by the parish of Wiggenhall St. Germans.

The area is now a part of King's Lynn and West Norfolk District.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Wiggenhall St. Mary the Virgin. 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.