Advice required

[PropPete]

I'm very new to genealogy. All of my work in tracing my family history has been done on the www. My ancestor Cornelius Gibbs married Mary Welton (or Wilton) on 25 December 1815 in Shimpling, Norfolk. Cornelius, a tailor, was born in Brockford cum Wetheringsett in 1794. My next task is to try and find his parents and siblings. There is nothing I can find on the www and, of course, since the marriage was pre 1837, the General Register Office cannot help. Can someone give me advice where I should start looking? In particular, I hope to find the marriage record of Cornelius and Mary. I live in Cambridge so legwork around Suffolk is easy.

[Mythology]

"My ancestor Cornelius Gibbs married Mary Welton (or Wilton) on 25 December 1815 in Shimpling, Norfolk."

As this message is in the Suffolk forum, just to avoid anyone else possibly getting the wrong end of the stick ...
This evidently *is* Shimpling, Norfolk (not far from Diss), not a typo for Shimpling, Suffolk (the parish just south of Lawshall), as I have the Suffolk FHS marriage index covering Shimpling, Suffolk, 1813-1837, and Cornelius Gibbs does not appear, so ...

"In particular, I hope to find the marriage record of Cornelius and Mary."

In which case, PropPete, your legs will have to travel a bit further. You'll need the Norfolk Record Office at Norwich.

From their list, I see that they have the Shimpling registers for that period on film or fiche, so you won't need to book, but you will need a CARN card - a reader's ticket which is valid in a number of record offices, including Suffolk Record Office, which will doubtless be handy later.

"Cornelius, a tailor, was born in Brockford cum Wetheringsett in 1794."

In which case, with luck he'll be in the baptism register of All Saints, "Wetheringsett" - just to confuse us all, the church itself is in Brockford but the parish name is Wetheringsett, so that's what you need to look for in indexes etc.

All three branches of Suffolk Record Office have this on fiche, so you can use either Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich or Lowestoft depending what fits in best with your travels. Personally I'd prefer to use Bury, as Wetheringsett is in the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, so if you get into marriage licences, wills, etc., you'll be better off there. Note, though, that whichever one you use, unlike Norfolk, at Suffolk you *do* need to book a fiche reader in advance.

[Geoffers]

My ancestor Cornelius Gibbs married Mary Welton (or Wilton) on 25 December 1815 in Shimpling, Norfolk.........I hope to find the marriage record of Cornelius and Mary.You will now need to use parish registers, these are normally available in the relevant county record office. The marriage registers for Shimpling are held by the Norfolk Record Office.


Cornelius, a tailor, was born in Brockford cum Wetheringsett in 1794.Suffolk Record Office hold registers for that county, they too have a web-site with useful bits of advice.

Geoffers

[Mythology]

Correction - I think.

"the church itself is in Brockford" Well, that's what the 1868 gazetteer says: "Wetheringsett ... ... includes the hamlet of Brockford, where the parish church is situated." However, from the modern OS map, this does not appear to be the case - on that it looks to be pretty plainly in Wetheringsett. The Suffolk churches site has it as being in Wetheringsett - but says that "Wetheringsett is a twin parish with adjacent Brockley" ! As they evidently don't know Brockford from Brockley, I'm not sure that I'd place too much faith in that either, so toss a coin. ;)

[PropPete]

Thanks a lot. That's really useful information. I'm glad you picked up on the Shimpling, Norfolk bit. I meant to mention that in my original message. My lot hung around the Suffolk/Norfolk border for several generations, constantly crossing that line that divides us swedes from those dumplings. It makes life very difficult for me. I had one born in Scole, Suffolk. Was it ever in Suffolk?

[Mythology]

No, you're right, definitely Norfolk!
I'm not at all surprised to see it as Suffolk though. Apart from the possibility of someone being born just across the river and putting "Scole" as their birthplace, something that happens quite a lot when people simply use the name of the nearest town or village, genuine ignorance of which county a place is in is not at all uncommon.

On census returns, I've seen quite a few where the enumerator has evidently copied exactly what the householder put, a place name with no county, then the county is shown in different writing - added by the checker, who has got it wrong!

I have a load of mine who don't know whether they were born in Lincolnshire or Northamptonshire - they're in that bit of Stamford that's across the Welland, sometimes called Stamford Baron or Stamford St Martin, and change their mind on almost every census. :D