Diss, Norfolk Genealogy

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

History
DISS (St. Mary), a market-town and parish, in the union of Depwade, hundred of Diss, E. division of Norfolk, 22 miles (S. S. W.) from Norwich, and 92 (N. E.) from London.

Diss St Mary is the earliest church for the town and subsequently with the expansion in the fifteenth century a chapel was built.

St Mary survived as the Ancient parish church; the chapel survived only until the Reformation. Diss had two churches Diss St Mary, Norfolk survives as the parish church whilst the later chapel of St Nicholas appears to have been lost.

The church was founded in 1290 and John Skelton one of the rectors was also the poet laureate.

Diss has a large concentration of surviving Tudor (1485-1603) buildings and St Nicholas Street in common with much of the ancient town could contain the frame of the 15th century chapel probably a wooden structure.

The Manning family provided many rectors of Diss and the Mannings formed a continuous line of Rectors from 1778 to 1916.

Census
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.

Category:England Family History Centres to locate local Family History Centres in UK

Introduction to LDS Family History Centers 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

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

Norfolk Record Office reference PD 100

The earliest registers from 1551 were bound in August 1816 by William Manning Rector and are marked No 1 and contain Baptisms and marriages 1551-1652 Burials 1555-1651 A second bound volume marked No 2 contains Baptisms and marriages 1551-1598 Burials 1555-1598.

Known Issues

Images of the parish register are available on FamilySearch Historical Records, however the current arrangement of images is in error and needs future engineering.

There is a non functional FamilySearch way point suggesting records 1653-1667 which should display Baptisms, marriages, burials 1653-1667

The 1667-1691 images are for Baptisms, marriages, burials 1667-1691

The 1691-1729 images are for Baptisms, marriages, burials 1691-1729

The 1694-1696 images are fo a draft register for 1694-1696

There are then omitted images which do not load. The omitted images are for Baptisms and burials 1729-1778 Marriages 1729-1754 Baptisms and burials 1779-1812 Baptisms and burials 1783-1787

Elsewhere under FamilySearch way point marked 1779-1812 and 1783-1787 two of these items appear for baptisms and burials but the marriages 1729-1754 do not appear to have been loaded.

There is a further series of unloaded marriages and banns for the years Marriages and banns 1792-1805 Marriages 1805-1812 Banns 1805-1823.

Genealogy
Roberts, Barbara. Whaite abd See - A Cautionary Tale. History of the family of John Whaite and Rebecca nee Crucknell, with the following descendant surnames: Penrice, Clements, Murton, Leatherdale, Dawson, Pack and Calver. Article dates 1755-1874, and is found in The Norfolk Ancestor, New Series, vol. 10 pt. 4, pages 185-187, Family History Library Ref. 942.61 B2j new. series v. 10, pt 4,

Poor Law Unions

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

Registration Districts

 * Depwade

Probate Jurisdictions
Norfolk Probate Jurisdictions Parishes C through F

Maps
England Jurisdictions 1851

Websites

 * Diss on GenUKI