Place:Great Bircham, Norfolk, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Great Bircham is the largest of the three villages and civil parishes that have made up the civil parish of Bircham since 1935. It is located in the west of the English county of Norfolk. The village is located about 1 km south of the village of Bircham Newton, the same distance west of the village of Bircham Tofts, 20 km northeast of the town of King's Lynn, and 60 km northwest of the city of Norwich.

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

"BIRCHAM (Great), a parish in Docking [registration] district, Norfolk; 3 miles S of Docking, and 9 ½ W by N of Fakenham [railway] station. It has a post office, of the name of Bircham, under Rougham. Acres: 3,606. Real property: £2,483. Population: 489. Houses: 86. The property mostly belongs to the Marquis of Cholmondeley. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £514. Patron: A. Hamond, Esq. The church is good."

Research tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Great Bircham. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Smithdon 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.