Brancaster, Norfolk Genealogy

England Norfolk  Norfolk Parishes

Parish History
Brancaster St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient parish in the diocese of Norwich. It is one of 124 surviving round tower churches in Norfolk.

An early 19th century and 20th century restoration to the church have been made.

Brancaster is a village and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. The civil parish of Brancaster comprises Brancaster itself, together with Brancaster Staithe and Burnham Deepdale. The three villages form a more or less continuous settlement along the A149 at the edge of marshland fringing Brancaster Bay and the Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve. The villages are located about 3 miles (5 km) west of Burnham Market, 22 miles (35 km) north of the town of King's Lynn and 31 miles (50 km) north-west of the city of Norwich.

For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

BRANCASTER (St. Mary the Virgin), a parish, in the union of Docking, hundred of Smithdon, W. division of Norfolk, 4½ miles (W. N. W.) from Burnham-Westgate, and 122 (N. N. E.) from London.

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.


 * Docking 1837-1938
 * King's Lynn 1938-1974

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

Norfolk Record Office reference PD 379/ 1-9, 13-14

This parish's registers do not appear on FamilySearch Historical Records as no microfilm for the parish is held A search of the Family History Library Catalogue indicates that the following Archdeacon's transcripts are on film but these have not yet been converted to digital images for publication

Archdeacons transcripts, 1725-1812 Microfilm copies of original records in the Norfolk Record Office, Central Library, Norwich, Norfolk, England.

Baptisms 1725-1811 Marriages 1726-1811 Burials 1725-1812 FHL BRITISH Film 1526809 Item 14

Nonconformist churches
Wesleyan Methodist

Primitive Methodist

Census records
Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

Poor Law Unions
Docking Poor Law Union, Norfolk

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.

Tax Records
1664 Hearth Taxes: Transcribed Marg Keable and housed on Norfolk Transcription Archives

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

Web sites

 * Brancaster on GenUKI