Suffolk, England Genealogy

Suffolk is a maritime county located in the lower south east part of 'England'.

Description
SUFFOLK, one of the most eastern counties of England, and one of the principal agricultural and maritime divisions of the kingdom, comprises an area of about 1500 square statute miles, or about 950,000 acres of land, watered by many navigable rivers and smaller streams, intersected by many good roads and several railways; and possessing all the varieties of soil from a light steril sand to a rich loam. …. though its eastern line occupies about 50 miles of seacoast, sweeping in a curved line from the estuary of the Orwell and Stour, near Harwich, northward to Yarmouth, where it terminates in a narrow apex; from whence, a line drawn across the county, in a south-westerly direction to Haverhill, at its south-western, angle, is more than 70 miles in length. It is bounded on the north by Norfolk, from which it is separated by the Waveney and Little Ouse rivers, rising near Redgrave, and flowing in opposite directions ; on the west, by Cambridgeshire where it is only about 26 miles in breadth; on the south, by Essex, from which it is separated by the river Stour, in a winding course of about 48 miles; and on the east, by the German Ocean, on which it has some fine bays, havens, and creeks, and a bold range of cliffs and headlands, of which that at Lowestoft is the most easterly point of England. It increased its Population from 210,431 souls in 1801, to 337,470 in 1851. Compared with the other counties in England, it ranks as the eighth in agricultural, and the fifteenth in total population. …… Quarter Sessions are held at Beccles, Woodbridge, Ipswich, and Bury, for the four divisions of the county. …….. Bury, which may be called the Western, and Ipswich the Eastern Capital of Suffolk. The latter has now about 34,000 inhabitants, and the former upwards of 14,000. There are in the county 28 other MARKET TOWNS, of which Sudbury, Woodbridye, and Lowestoft, have each about 6,000 souls; Bungay and Beccles each about 4000; and Hadleigh and Stowmarket each upwards of 3000 ; but the remainder have smaller populations, many of them numbering less than 2000 souls… SUFFOLK contains about 500 parishes, several extra-parochial places, 30 towns, (of which the markets of eight or nine are obsolete,) and about 1000 villages and hamlets. It is divided into twenty-one Hundreds, each having high constables and petty sessions; but three of its boroughs, — Ipswich, Bury, and Sudbury, are distinct jurisdictions, and have separate commissions of the peace, and courts of Quarter Sessions........ HISTORY, GAZETTEER, AND DIRECTORY OF SUFFOLK 1855 By WILLIAM WHITE, page 25 to 48

Civil Districts
When civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1837, Suffolk was divided into a number of registration districts, each containing several parishes. The index to the civil records gives the name of the district where an event took place. Click here to see a list of the civil districts in Suffolk and the parishes covered by each. Read more about England Civil Registration.

Parishes
See a list of the parishes of Suffolk with links to articles.

Probate Jurisdictions
Before 1858, every town and parish in Suffolk was under the probate jurisdiction of several ecclesiastical courts. To read more about probate records and see a list of Suffolk towns and parishes and the probate courts that had jurisdiction over them, go to Suffolk Probate Records.