Happisburgh, Norfolk Genealogy

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

Parish History
HAPPISBURGH (St. Mary), a parish, in the hundred of Happing, E. division of Norfolk, 7 miles (E.) from North Walsham. The Primitive Methodists have a place of worship.

Happisburgh St Mary is an Ancient Parish in the Waxham deanery of the Diocese of Norwich.

The tower of the 15th century St Mary's church is an important landmark to mariners warning of the position of the treacherous nearby sandbanks. In 1940 a German bomber released a trapped bomb from its bays during its return to Germany and the shrapnel from the bomb can still be seen embedded in the aisle pillars of the church. The church's octagonal font, also of the 15th century, is carved with figures of lions and satyrs. The part of the village near the coast regularly experiences severe erosion and houses that used to be over 20 feet from the sea now sit at the edge of a cliff and will later fall into the sea. Sea defences were built in 1959 to stop the tide from eating away at the coast. Changes in government policy, however, have discontinued management of coastal erosion in North Norfolk

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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.


 * 1837-1869 Tunstead
 * 1870-1938 Smallburgh
 * 1939-1974 North Walsham

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Norfolk ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Norfolk ($)
 * Norfolk Transcription Archive
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1613-1901 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions

 * Norfolk Poor Law Unions
 * Tunstead and Happing at Smallburgh Workhouse

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

Websites

 * Norfolk: Happisburgh on GenUKI
 * Parish Info
 * British History Online
 * ;Literary Norfolk for Happisburgh connections
 * Happisburgh on Norfolk Churches