The Palgrave-Moore Norfolk Marriage Index is a project started as far back as the 1970's with the aim of transcribing and indexing the marriages and banns of all Norfolk parishes from 1538 to 1812.
When I commenced the project I had no illusions about the size of the task, but as Norfolk had more
extant parish registers than any other county it seemed worthwhile. Needless to say with some 750
parishes to contend with this is very much an on-going task and
one that is likely to take me the rest of my life. Transcriptions have been made from original parish
registers except where the originals are fragile, when legible microfilm or microfiche copies have been
used.. With some parishes where there is an existing transcript, notably with the Phillimore series which
is full of inaccuracies, errors and omissions, then these have been corrected from the original registers..
Where extant, entries have been checked against Archdeacon's and Bishop's Transcripts and omissions
and errors adjusted . Spellings are given as they appear in the registers, though latinized names have
been Anglicised, together with descriptions of age, occupation, status and residence where given. I have
also recorded if marriages were by licence and included differences in secondary sources where these
conflict with the original.
From each register entry two slips were prepared for both bride and groom. These were then
sorted into the order of intended surname rather than the order of spelling. This was considered the most
important part of the index - to incorporate all surnames in one list to show at a glance, the distribution
of the surname in that area. A glance at the attempt of the IGI to group family names together by 'alphasort'
with little association from one name to another or no knowledge of local dialect, will explain my
choice. Unfortunately, this unique type of index does not lend itself to a data input followed by 'alphasort'.
Each of the slips has to be analysed and correctly placed with its intended surname � a very time
consuming task, but an essential one if the index is to achieve its purpose. Overall, my half a century
knowledge of Norfolk families and peculiarities of local dialect has helped greatly in this respect. I had
to print the index myself and check for obvious typing errors, as I am probably the only one who can
interpret my writing and abbreviations, Difficulties in register interpretation have arisen, mainly due to
some of the Tudor and Elizabethan hands using almost identical strokes for different letters, careless
writing such as omitting the cross of 'Vs and putting a cross over '1' as in Butter or Butler and errors of
transcription from the original paper registers to the Elizabethan copies The index will not be perfect as
some typing errors will always creep in with a project of this size, but I hope if any are found these will
be passed on to me. Banns have been included even where only one or two banns were read as this is
still useful for the family historian.
The first volume completed in 2005, covered 58 parishes in the Hundreds of Humbleyard,
Henstead and Depwade in South East Central Norfolk and involved some 36,000 entries. Volume Two
completed in 2006 covered the Hundreds of Rapping, East and West Flegg in East Norfolk but
excluding Great Yarmouth and involved some 26,000 entries. Volume Three, although the subject of
preparation decades ago was not published until 2008 due to problems with re-sorting. It involved some
40,000 entries from the Hundreds of Tunstead and North Erpingham in North East Norfolk. Volume
Four [2009] covered the Hundreds of Blofield, Walsham and Taverham within East Central Norfolk and
involved some 27,000 entries. Volume Five [2010] covered the Norwich Hamlets and involved over
10,500 entries. Volume Six [2011] covered the large Hundreds of Clackclose and Grimshoe in South
West Norfolk, an area little covered by earlier transcription and containing over 43,000 entries. Volume
Seven involving some 39,500 slips contained the Hundreds of Loddon, Clavering and Earsham, thus
completing the whole of the far Eastern part of the county. Volume Eight covered the single Hundred of
Forehoe using some 17,000 slips including entries from Quaker registers. Volume 9, using over 28,500
slips, covered the Hundred of South Erpingham, again including entries from Quaker registers and some
early Marriage Licence Bonds from the Consistory Court. Volume 10, transcribed in 2014 and involving
over 19,200 entries, covered the Hundred of South Greenhoe which contained many very badly
transcribed entries published in the Phillimore series needing complete re-transcription. Volume 11 covers the Hundred of Holt, an area largely omitted from earlier transcriptions, and
involving over 18,000 slips.

Abbreviations Used
AT's Archdeacon's Transcripts
b tp bachelor of this parish
BT's Bishop's Transcripts
c/w cordwainer
GY Great Yarmouth
lic. married by licence
MLB. Marriage Licence Bond
NCC Nortwich Consistory Court
QM. Quaker marriage
s tp single or spinster of this parish
soj. sojourner of this parish
w/w worstead weaver

Norwich parishes are given solely by the dedication of the saint of that parish