Fonds C/RS - Norfolk Registration Service

The arrangement of the catalogue reflects the order placed on the documents by the Norfolk Registration Service at the time of deposit. The collection is arranged by the registration offices which last held the registers and indexes. This corresponds with the nine registration districts which were in existence immediately prior to the establishment of the Norfolk Registration District on 1 April 2011. These were Dereham, Diss, Downham Market, Fakenham, Great Yarmouth, King's Lynn, North Walsham, Norwich and Thetford. The registers and indexes have been catalogued in a similar manner for each of the nine offices. For each registration office the first five series are indexes to birth registers, indexes to marriage registers created by the Church of England, indexes to marriage registers created by authorised person churches, indexes to marriage registers created by registry offices and indexes to death registers. The next five series contain the actual registers. The order mirrors that of the indexes. The series of birth and death indexes and registers are further divided by sub-registration district (initially referred to as registration districts). They are usually arranged in alphabetical order of sub-registration district. The marriage registers created by the Church of England, and their respective indexes, are arranged in alphabetical order of parish. With regard to marriage registers created by authorised person churches, and their associated indexes, the order placed on them by the individual registration offices varies. This is reflected in the catalogue. Norwich registration office attempted to order the registers and indexes by religious denomination. The other registration offices, if they had any arrangement, tended to list the registers in alphabetical order of place. This is how the registers of all the registration offices (except Norwich) have been arranged in the catalogue. Marriage registers created by registry offices do include marriages overseen by registrars at a variety of locations. These registers are usually arranged in alphabetical order of registration district or location of the registry office.