Caston, Norfolk Genealogy

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

Parish History
CASTON (Holy Cross), a parish, in the union and hundred of Wayland, W. division of Norfolk, 3½ miles (S. E.) from Watton.

Caston Holy Cross is an Ancient parish in the Diocese of Norfolk.

Caston was the residence of Edward Gilman, a prosperous yeoman of Welsh descent, who died in 1573. Gilman's son Robert, born in 1559, later removed to Hingham, Norfolk, about five miles distant. HIs son Edward Gilman subsequently became caught up in the Puritan movement that swept parts of Norfolk, and moved to Hingham, Massachusetts, arriving in the Massachusetts Bay Colony on August 10, 1638. Puritanism was found elsewhere: Edward Gilman's sister Bridget, married to Edward Lincoln, had a son Thomas Lincoln, who himself left Norfolk for Massachusetts in 1633 accompanied by Mary Gilman Jacob, another of Edward Gilman's sisters. Thomas Lincoln's brother Samuel followed him to Massachusetts in 1637, settling in Hingham alongside his brother. Samuel Lincoln became the great-great-great-great-grandfather of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

The Gilman family subsequently moved to Exeter, New Hampshire, where they became noted businessmen, statesmen and American patriots.

The family branch which remained in England subsequently produced two mayors of Norwich: Charles Suckling Gilman and his son, Sir Charles Rackham Gilman, who were both instrumental in the development of the insurance industry of Norwich and became philanthropists. Charles Rackham Gilman served as the first Chairman of Conservators of Mousehold Heath, which was donated to the City Council during Gilman's period of office as mayor. Gilman Road in Norwich is named for the family. Also descended from the Caston Gilmans was the prominent Norfolk barrister Samuel Heyhoe Le Neve Gilman, who resided at Hingham.

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.


 * Wayland 1837-1974

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

Browse Bishop's Transcript Images on FamilySearch


 * 1705 Image 407
 * 1715 Image 1224
 * 1722-1723 Image 74
 * 1722-1723 Image 75

Norfolk Record Office reference PD 158/ 1-8

This parish's registers do not appear on FamilySearch as no microfilm for the parish is held at the Family History Library. A search of the FamilySearch Catalogue identifies the following Archdeacon's transcripts:

Non-Conformist Records

 * 1613-1901 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Genealogy From Periodicals
Wyer, Pat. Weavers and Windmills. Family tree of Thomas Wyer asnd Margaret nee Reve, his brother Edward and wife Joan nee Fitt, and brother William Wyer. Article dates from 1575-1917, and surnames of Fitt, Smith, Hardy, Sysely. They appear to be in Norwich, Fakenham, Carbrooke, and Caston. Article in The Norfolk Ancestor, old series, vol.3,pt3. page 30-33, Family History Library Ref. 942.61 B2j vol.3

Poor Law Unions
Wayland Poor Law Union

For more information on the history of the workhouse, see Peter Higginbotham's web site: Workhouses and Workhouses Wayland

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

Websites

 * Norfolk: Caston on GenUKI
 * Parish Info
 * for historical description
 * links to census returns for the parish
 * Caston online
 * for history of the Methodist chapel (illustrated)
 * for photos of the church
 * Windmill Info
 * for information and photos of the misericords in All Saints