Place:Brandon, Suffolk, England

Brandon is a town and civil parish standing on the River Little Ouse in the English county of Suffolk, close to the adjoining county of Norfolk. From 1974 until 2019 it was located in the Forest Heath District of Suffolk and is now in the West Suffolk District.

It lies between the towns of Bury St. Edmunds, Thetford, Mildenhall, Downham Market and the city of Ely. It is adjacent to Thetford Forest Park.

"The History of Britain through Time" provides this description of Brandon from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Walesof 1870-72:

"BRANDON, a small town and a parish in the district of Thetford, and partly in the county of Norfolk, but chiefly in the county of Suffolk. The town stands on the Little Ouse river, adjacent to the Norfolk railway, 6 miles by road, and 7¼ by railway, NW by W of Thetford. It has a head post office, a railway station with telegraph, a banking office, three chief inns, a parish church, four dissenting chapels, a free grammar school, and nine almshouses.

"The church stands about ¼ of a mile distant; is an ancient quadrangular edifice, of flint and stone; and has a Norman porch, a fine tower, and two cupolas. A weekly market is held on Thursday; and fairs on 14 Feb., 11 June, and 24 Nov. A good grain trade is carried on; and a manufactory of gun flints formed the sole source for the supply of these to government prior to the use of percussion-caps. The town gave name to the Dukes of Suffolk, and the title of Baron to the Earls of Macclesfield; and it gives the title of Duke to the Dukes of Hamilton. Lord Mayor Eyre of London, who built Leadenhall market [in London], was a native. Population, 2,203. Houses, 512. The parish comprises 6,759 acres. Real property: £7,081. Population [of the parish]: 2,218. Houses: 519. The property is subdivided. Brandon Park is the seat of H. Bliss, Esq. About 2,400 acres are fen; and there are extensive and productive rabbit warrens. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Wangford, in the diocese of Ely. Value: £500. Patron: T. E. Cartwright, Esq."

NOTE: The writer of the Wikipedia article on Brandon states that Brandon is at present in the Breckland District of Norfolk. This may refer to the part of the parish which was on the north side of the River Little Ouse.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Brandon. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map of Suffolk from 1900 provided online by A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography) can be enlarged to view individual parishes. Careful inspection will usually lead to the discovery of smaller hamlets founded before 1900. The rural districts (marked with their names printed in blue) are those in existence in 1900, not those introduced in 1934. The more ancient hundreds are marked in red. Most (but not all) parish names are underlined in red.

Suffolk Information

• Suffolk Family History Society A community of people who are interested in the local and family history pertaining to Suffolk.
• Suffolk Archives (Record Office) ( e-mail archives@suffolk.gov.uk) - The Suffolk Archive has branches in Ipswich (at The Hold, 131 Fore Street, Ipswich, IP4 1LR), Bury St. Edmunds (at 77 Raingate Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 2AR) and Lowestoft (at Lowestoft Library, Clapham Road South, Lowestoft, NR32 1DR). Includes: a good-looking website, research services and publications.
• Suffolk Churches This is an excellent guide to most of the Suffolk Churches with lots of pictures and descriptions of the architecture and history. It includes many chapels. If you have trouble visiting Suffolk to see where your ancestor were baptised, married and buried, or even those who want to just add to their knowledge, this is the site for you.

For those whose families may have wandered over the county borders:

• Cambridgeshire & Huntingdon Family History Society - One of the three counties adjoining Suffolk. The Isle of Ely is included in their area.
• Essex Family History Society - Another of the three counties adjoining Suffolk, stretching south to the outskirts of London.
• Norfolk Family History Society - The third of the counties adjoining Suffolk. There was a realignment of the border in 1974.
• Romany & Traveller Family History Society - British family history society for people with Romany Gypsy, Traveller and Fairground roots.

British Government Information

• The National Archives or "TNA" - More than 850,000 Probate Wills from 1610-1858 (PCC wills dating back to 1670 have been completed). Free access to indexes but copy of a will costs £10.00. (Ancestry has an index to wills published after 1858.) Access also available to the Domesday Book, World War One Diaries and various other information. Their catalogue called Discovery holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country including County Record Offices. Over 9 million records are available for download.
• The British Library - This vast collection contains millions of bibliographic records, British newspapers, many now digitised and searchable on-line and much more.
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission - The database lists the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries, memorials and other locations world-wide where they are commemorated. The register can also be searched for details of the 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action in the Second World War.
• General Register Office - provides official copies of birth marriage & death certificates for England & Wales.
• FreeBMD - provides Civil Registration index information for England and Wales. The transcribing of the records, by volunteers, is ongoing and contains well over 279 million records at August 2020. Records are complete from 1837 to 1983. Later records are not complete.
• FreeCEN - provides a "free-to-view" online searchable database of the UK census returns from 1841 to 1891. The transcribing of the records, by volunteers, is ongoing and contains well over 39 million records at August 2020. At that time Suffolk records appeared to be only for the 1891 census and a few for the 1871 census.
• FreeREG - provides baptism, marriage, and burial records, which have been transcribed, by volunteers, from parish and non-conformist church registers in the UK. There are over 49 million entries with just under 300,000 records for Suffolk at August 2020.
• Ministry of Defence (url not found)- provides information for obtaining details about service records post 1920
• Royal Air Force Museum (url not found) - for information on the archive and library research material available.