Place:Ashby St. Mary, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Ashby St. Mary is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The civil parish has an area of 2.03 square kilometres (0.78 sq mi) and in the 2001 census had a population of 297 in 115 households, the population increasing to 316 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the District of South Norfolk.

The village is situated 7 1⁄2 miles (12.1 km) southeast of Norwich and 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Thurton, with the smaller settlements of Claxton (to the north), Hellington (to the west) and Carleton St. Peter (to the east) all lying a similar distance away. The church has a high tower, a long, low nave, and an impressive Norman door.

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

"ASHBY, a parish in Loddon [registration] district, Norfolk; 3 miles SW of Buckenham [railway] station, and 7 SE of Norwich. Post Town: Rockland under Norwich. Acres: 487. Real property: £1,360. Population: 257. Houses: 58. The living is a rectory, annexed to the rectory of Carleton, in the diocese of Norwich."

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for http://www.origins.org.uk/genuki/NFK/places/a/ashby_st_mary/ Ashby St. Mary]. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Loddon 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.