Merton, Norfolk Genealogy

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

Parish History
MERTON (St. Peter), a parish, in the union and hundred of Wayland, W. division of Norfolk, 2¼ miles (S. S. W.) from Watton.

Merton St Peter is an Ancient Parish in the Diocese of Norwich. St. Peter's, Merton is a small, flint church with a round west tower. It was largely rebuilt around 1300; most of the windows with their very elaborate tracery date from this period, with some later, Perpendicular, additions. The tower, however, and some parts of the west and north walls may be Saxon or early Norman. Considerable restoration was carried out in the nineteenth century but, with some notable exceptions (particularly the South Porch), efforts were made to ensure that new stonework and other features were a replica of that which was being replaced. Within the last few years further restoration work has taken place, with funding from the English Heritage, The Norfolk Churches Trust and The Round Tower Churches Society.

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

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Norfolk Record Office.

Census records
http://apling.freeservers.com/1891Census/Merton.htm transcript of 1891 census

Poor Law Unions
Wayland Poor Law Union

For more information on the history of the workhouse, see Peter Higginbotham's web site: www.workhouses.org.uk and http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Wayland/Wayland.shtml 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
 * http://apling.freeservers.com/Villages/Merton54.htm 1854Francis White's History transcript
 * http://apling.freeservers.com/Villages/Merton.htm 1881 Kelly's Directory transcript
 * http://apling.freeservers.com/Villages/Merton37.htm 1937 Kelly's Directory

Websites

 * Norfolk: Merton on GenUKI
 * Merton St Peter on A Church Near You
 * The Churches of Wayland
 * British History online
 * Church of St Peter Merton on British Listed Buildings
 * Merton on Norfolk Churches]