West Wretham, Norfolk Genealogy

England   Norfolk   Norfolk Parishes

Parish History
WRETHAM, WEST (St. Lawrence), a parish, in the union of Thetford, hundred of Shropham, W. division of Norfolk, 5½ miles (N. N. E.) from Thetford.

West Wretham St Lawrence was an Ancient Parish in the Dioces of Norwich in the Rockland deanery.

The church has been in ruins since the 1840's.

Includes Foulmere.

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.


 * Thetford 1837-1935
 * with Lynford 1935-1938
 * Wayland 1939-1974

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

Combined parish registers for East Wretham with West Wretham are available online at Family Search Historic record Collection for Norfolk Parish registers.

East Wretham Norfolk Record Office reference PD 487/1-5

Census records
Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search. Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions
Thetford Poor Law Union

See also England Norfolk Poor Law Union Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Norfolk Poor Law Unions

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.

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

Web sites

 * West Wretham on GenUKI