Heigham, Norfolk Genealogy

England   Norfolk



Parish History
Heigham St Bartholomew is an Ancient parish in the diocese of Norwich.

Only the tower remains after substantial damage by German bombing in 1942. Heigham lies just outside the city walls of Norwich and along with other medieval church of Norwich St Benedict, Norfolk and subsequent bombing victims in the city.

The parish is large and subsequent church building of Heigham St Philip, Norfolk Heigham St Thomas, Norfolk Heigham Most Holy Trinity, Norfolk Heigham St Barnabas, Norfolk  were designed to meet the needs of the population of the city within the Ancient parish boundaries.

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.


 * Norwich

Church records
Norfolk Record Office reference PD 470 many of the records were destroyed in the 27 April 1942 "Baedecker" raid bombing of Norwich St Benedict area and and Heigham.

This parish does not appear on FamilySearch Historical Records (formerly known as Record Search) as no microfilm for the parish is held. A search of the Family History Library Catalogue indicates that the following Archdeacon's transcripts are on film but these have not yet been converted to digital images for publication. Transcripts are the major surviving record source for the parish.

Census records
FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal: Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.

to locate local Family History Centres in UK

to locate outside UK.

Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

for details of public houses in the 1881 census

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
Norwich 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
For historic photographs of the church http://www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Website/raids.htm and history of German Bombing of Norwich

http://www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Website/modernparishchurches.htm for photographs of Heigham churches

http://www.welbank.net/norwich/hist.html history of Heigham