Carbrooke, Norfolk is an agricultural village, with a surprising and fascinating history with influences through the centuries from around the world.
Parish Records have been kept in Carbrooke since 1538. Originally on ‘vellum’, and left to the Priest’s discretion as to what should be included. They are now kept in specially designed books. On the whole, early records are quite vague, for example women’s names were often omitted, and when the Priest ran out of space, he may have added records at any suitable part of the record book. But they are also an invaluable source of information for family historians, as they are the only records we have of most people from those days. Occasionally the Priest added interesting comments in the margins.
For anyone to ‘claim on the Parish’ in times of hardship, they had to be able to prove to which Parish they belonged. So Parish records were used for this purpose until civil registration was introduced in 1837 – with the introduction of birth, marriage and death certificates.
In 1812, Parish registers were standardised, and became much easier to read.
The first mention of a Nonconformist chapel was 1833, and from that date, some Carbrooke residents began to be baptised, married or buried with the Unitarian or Methodist faith, and the records are not included in the Parish Church Records.
More recently, some prefer to marry in a registry office or other wedding venue, and their records will not be included in the parish registers. Carbrooke is part of the Wayland Registration District.
Carbrooke Church registers are now kept in Norfolk Records Office (80 items) where they can be studied by the public, historically they were kept in the Parish Chest in the Church, which is still here, but not in the best of condition. Those still in use are kept in the church.
Norfolk Baptism Project: A very useful site for anybody researching Norfolk ancestry. It includes Carbrooke Baptism records 1812 -1880 Hosted by ROOTSWEB
Includes, date of baptism, occasionally date of birth, childs name and surname, parents names, fathers occupation and address.
Carbrooke Marriages 1813 -1901
Includes date of marriage, bride and groom names, ages, addresses and occupations. Both fathers names and occupations. Witnesses names.
Includes date of burial, names, age, place of death.
If anyone has done any personal transcriptions they would like to add here, or would like to do some to add, please contact us.
Page last updated 01.04.2022