Burnham Overy, Norfolk Genealogy

Guide to Burnham Overy, Norfolk ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
BURNHAM-OVERY (St. Clement), a parish, in the union of Docking, hundred of Brothercross, W. division of Norfolk, 1½ mile (N. E.) from BurnhamWestgate. The parish was partly annexed to the parish of Burnham-Sutton cum Burnham Ulph, in the diocese of Norwich.

Burnham Overy St Clement is an Ancient Parish in the Diocese of Norwich.

Burnham Overy is a civil parish on the north coast of Norfolk, England. In modern times a distinction is often made between the two settlements of Burnham Overy Town, the original village adjacent to the parish church and now reduced to a handful of houses, and Burnham Overy Staithe, a rather larger hamlet about 1 mile (2 km) away and next to the creek-side harbour.

St. Clement's Church, on the bank of the Burn, is from the 13th century and has a Norman central tower that was lowered one storey in the 17th century. The building was originally cross-shaped with the tower at the centre. After several alterations to the layout over the years, now the large tower divides the church in two and forms a vestry.

Burnham Overy lies between the larger village of Burnham Market, less than 1 mile (2 km) to the west, and Holkham, some 3 miles (5 km) to the east. Burnham Thorpe, the birthplace of Horatio Nelson, lies 1 mile (2 km) to the south-east. According to various letters and documents, it is stated that Nelson learned to row and sail a dinghy at Burnham Overy Staithe, at the age of 10, two years before joining the Navy. The larger town of King's Lynn is 20 miles (30 km) to the south-west, whilst the city of Norwich is 30 miles (50 km) to the south-east.

For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Burnham Overy parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Norfolk Record Office.

Poor Law Unions
Docking Poor Law Union, Norfolk Norfolk Poor Law Unions England Norfolk Poor Law Union Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Parish chest materials of Burnham-Overy, 1730-1863 Microreproduction of original records at the Norfolk Record Office, Norwich.

Norfolk Record Office nos.: PD 572/1-10, 12-13.

Rates, which are taxes, are determined by property valuation, therefore church and poor rates list owners and occupiers of properties. In some cases, they are listed alphabetically by surname.

Parish chest materials which are identified in these records as churchwardens' accounts and/or vestry minutes, can contain a variety of records including accounts, minutes, lists of parish officers, church and/or poor rates, payments made to the poor, lists of charities, donors to special collections, terriers (identification of parish boundaries and properties), description of church silver or plate, copies of wills and various other records pertaining to the history and life of the parish.

Churchwardens' accounts, etc., 1730-1864; Church rate, 1809; Overseers' accounts, 1742-1802, 1739-1743; List of poor (by surname, and number in household), and constables' accounts, 1800-1802. FHL BRITISH Film 2149114 Items 9 - 12

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Norfolk Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Tax Records
1597 Subsidy Taxes: Transcribed by Geoff Lowe and housed by Norfolk Transcription Archives

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites

 * Burnham Overy on GenUKI