West Beckham, Norfolk Genealogy

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

Parish History
BECKHAM, WEST (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Erpingham, hundred of South Erpingham, E. division of Norfolk, 3 miles (E.) from Holt.

In the late nineteenth century West Beckham church, All Saints', was in a poor state of repair, while down the road in East Beckham, St. Helen's had been a ruin since 1602. So the decision was made to build St.Helen's and All Saints' in a more central location. Both old buildings were dismantled and contributed to the new church, to the design of the old St.Helen's. The latter provided the stonework for the south porch and the chancel arch; while parts of the doorways and some of the windows came from All Saints'.

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.


 * Erpingham 1837-1938
 * North Walsham 1939-1974
 * The Register Office, 18 Kings Arms Street, North Walsham, NR28 9JX. Tel/Fax: 01692 406220. E-mail: registration.nwalsham@norfolk.gov.uk

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

Norfolk Record Office reference PD 652 East and West Beckham

West Beckham Workhouse registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Non-Conformist Records

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

Census records
http://www.btinternet.com/~e.c.apling/1891Census/WestBeckham.htm

Poor Law Unions
Erpingham     http://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/england/norf/erpingham_workhouse.htm

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

 * West Beckham on GenUKI