Place:Thetford, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of the Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of 29.55 km2 (11.41 sq mi), had a population of 24,340 in the 2011 UK census. Thetford is on the River Little Ouse which marks the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk. Some areas south of the river were considered to be part of Thetford although they were actually in Suffolk.

Thetford is noted as the birthplace of Thomas Paine; a statue of him stands on King Street.

Thetford was large enough to have a number of ecclesiastical parishes (listed above). It was made a municipal borough in 1835 (the year municipal boroughs were first established). The borough originally comprised the civil parishes of

Thetford St. Cuthbert,

Thetford St. Mary the Less and

Thetford St. Peter.

As such they were the registrars for births, marriages and deaths (as well as baptisms and burials) and oversaw the decennial censuses. These three continued as civil parishes until 1924 when they were merged into the civil parish of Thetford. The three parishes continue their ecclesiastical role to this day. Over the centuries the other parishes have merged into the three remaining. (See notes under Grimshoe Hundred.)

As mentioned by Bartholomew in the quote from his gazetteer below, Thetford St. Cuthbert and Thetford St. Mary had lands partly in Suffolk.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Thetford from John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles of 1887:

"Thetford.-- mun. bor. and market town, Norfolk and Suffolk, at the confluence of the Thet and the Little Ouse, 14 miles N. of Bury St Edmunds and 93 miles NE. of London by rail, 7296 ac., population 4032; P.O., [telegraph office], 2 Banks, 1 newspaper. Market-day, Saturday. The bor. comprises the parishes of Thetford St Cuthbert (306 ac., pop. 1628), Thetford St Mary (4620 ac., pop. 1222), and Thetford St Peter (2370 ac., pop. 1182), the last wholly in Norfolk. Thetford was long a very important place. It was probably a Roman station; in Saxon times it was the capital of East Anglia; and in the middle ages it abounded in religious establishments, some remains of which still exist. There are mfrs. of agricultural implements, and some other industries, chiefly connected with agricultural pursuits. Thetford was incorporated in 1573; it returned 2 members to Parl. from the time of Edward VI. until 1867-68."

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Aslacton. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• 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.
• Ordnance Survey Map of Norfolk revised 1944 and, for comparison, another map of Norfolk dated 1917.