Santon Downham Genealogical Records
Santon Downham Birth & Baptism Records
An index to births registered throughout England & Wales. Provides a reference to order copies of birth certificates from the national registrar of births, marriages and deaths – the General Register Office.
A collection of indexes and transcripts of birth and baptism records that cover over 250 million people. Includes digital images of many records.
An index to births registered at the central authority for England & Wales. The index provides the area where the birth was registered, mother's maiden name from September 1911 and a reference to order a birth certificate.
An index to births registered to British Army personal at home and abroad.
An index to over 100,000 birth and christening notices from The London Times.
Santon Downham Marriage & Divorce Records
An index to marriages registered throughout England & Wales. This is the only national marriage index that allows you to search by both spouse's names. Provides a reference to order copies of marriage certificates from the national registrar of births, marriages and deaths – the General Register Office.
Brief notes on marriages occurring in Santon Downham from 1818 to 1834.
Abstracts of around 8,000 records containing details of parties who intended to marry.
Abstracts of marriage licences from the Sudbury Archdeaconry. These records may contain more details than marriage registers, including occupations, ages and parents' names.
Abstracts of marriage licences from the Sudbury Archdeaconry. These records may contain more details than marriage registers, including occupations, ages and parents' names.
Santon Downham Death & Burial Records
An index to deaths registered throughout England & Wales. Provides a reference to order copies of death certificates from the national registrar of births, marriages and deaths – the General Register Office.
An index of burials recorded at St Mary, Santon Downham_. The index includes the name of the deceased, the date of burial, age (where available) and occasionally other notes.
An index to burials recorded at Quaker meetings. The records contain the name of the deceased, the date they were buried and their age.
Images of millions of pages from cemetery and crematoria registers, photographs of memorials, cemetery plans and more. Records can be search by a name index.
A collection of indexes and transcripts of death and burial records that cover over 140 million people. Includes digital images of many records.
Santon Downham Census & Population Lists
An index to and digital images of records that detail 40 million civilians in England and Wales. Records list name, date of birth, address, marital status, occupation and details of trade or profession.
The 1911 census provides details on an individual's age, residence, place of birth, relations and occupation. FindMyPast's index allows searches on for multiple metrics including occupation and residence.
A transcription of records naming those who had taxes levied against them for the privilege of owning a hearth.
A list of Suffolk householders and the number of hearths they possessed.
A list of taxes paid by heads of households.
Newspapers Covering Santon Downham
A regional newspaper covering news and events in Norfolk and Suffolk. The newspaper contains numerous notices and articles useful to family historians, such as notices of birth, marriage and death.
A newspaper covering Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. Around 50% of issues from 1814-1817. Original images, searchable by an OCR index.
A London newspaper that later became The Sun.
A left-wing, British daily that sold up to 2 million copies a day at its peak.
Digital images, searchable by text, of a British daily tabloid.
Santon Downham Wills & Probate Records
Searchable index and original images of over 12.5 million probates and administrations granted by civil registries. Entries usually include the testator's name, date of death, date of probate and registry. Names of relations may be given.
Full transcriptions of around 1,400 17th century wills from the Archdeaconry of Sudbury in Suffolk. Contains an index of all the people and places mentioned in the wills.
Full transcriptions of several hundred early wills from the Archdeaconry of Sudbury in Suffolk.
An index to over 10,000 names occurring in Suffolk wills.
An index to early wills proved at the Archdeaconry Court of Sudbury and the Commissary Court of Bury St. Edmunds.
Santon Downham Immigration & Travel Records
A name index connected to original images of passenger lists recording people travelling from Britain to destinations outside Europe. Records may detail a passenger's age or date of birth, residence, occupation, destination and more.
A full index of passenger lists for vessels arriving in the UK linked to original images. Does not include lists from vessels sailing from European ports. Early entries can be brief, but later entries may include dates of births, occupations, home addresses and more. Useful for documenting immigration.
An index to and images of documents recording over 1.65 million passengers who arrived in Victoria, Australia, including passengers whose voyage was paid for by others.
Details on over 600,000 non-British citizens arriving in England. Often includes age and professions. Useful for discerning the origin of immigrants.
Details on thousands of 17th century British immigrants to the U.S., detailing their origins and nature of their immigration.
Santon Downham Military Records
An introductory history to an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army.
A calendar that lists most of the important dates in the history of the Regiment.
A list of names found on World War One monuments in Suffolk, with some service details.
A list of names found on World War Two monuments in Suffolk, with some service details.
A searchable list of over 100,000 British Army POWs. Records contains details on the captured, their military career and where they were held prisoner.
Santon Downham Court & Legal Records
Transcriptions and translations of pleas brought before a court. They largely concern land disputes. A number of cases relate to Suffolk.
An index to names and places mentioned in act books of the Province of Canterbury. It records various licences and conferments, such as marriage and physician licences.
Records of over 300,000 prisoners held by quarter sessions in England & Wales. Records may contain age, occupation, criminal history, offence and trial proceedings.
Over 175,000 records detailing prisoner's alleged offences and the outcome of their trial. Contains genealogical information.
Digital images of ledgers recording those registered to vote, searchable by an index of 220 million names. Entries list name, address, qualification to vote, description of property and sometimes age and occupation.
Santon Downham Taxation Records
A list of those who voted in the election, stating their residence and for who they voted.
A list of those who voted in the election, stating their residence and for who they voted.
A list of those who voted in the election, stating their residence and for who they voted.
A transcription of records naming those who had taxes levied against them for the privilege of owning a hearth.
A list of Suffolk householders and the number of hearths they possessed.
Santon Downham Land & Property Records
A list of those who voted in the election, stating their residence and for who they voted.
A list of those who voted in the election, stating their residence and for who they voted.
A list of those who voted in the election, stating their residence and for who they voted.
An index to 11,000,000 parcels of land and property, connected to digital images of registers that record their owner, occupier, description, agricultural use, size and rateable value.
This vital collection details almost 1.2 million properties eligible for land tax. Records include the name of the landowner, occupier, amount assessed and sometimes the name and/or description of the property. It is a useful starting point for locating relevant estate records and establishing the succession of tenancies and freehold. Most records cover 1798, but some extend up to 1811.
Santon Downham Directories & Gazetteers
A directory of settlements in Suffolk detailing their history, agriculture, topography, economy and leading commercial, professional and private residents.
Descriptions of physical and geological landmarks, a listing of government offices and descriptions of the villages & parishes, including a list of the private Descriptions of physical and geological landmarks, a listing of government offices and descriptions of the villages & parishes, including a list of the private residents..
A comprehensive place-by-place gazetteer, listing key contemporary and historical facts. Each place has a list of residents and businesses. Contains details on local schools, churches, government and other institutions.
A comprehensive place-by-place gazetteer, listing key contemporary and historical facts. Each place has a list of residents and businesses. Contains details on local schools, churches, government and other institutions.
A comprehensive place-by-place gazetteer, listing key historical and contemporary facts. Contains details on local schools, churches, government and other institutions. Also contains a list of residents and businesses for each place.
Santon Downham Cemeteries
Photographs and descriptions of Suffolk's most illustrious church monuments, often featuring effigies, medieval inscriptions and heraldic devices.
Images of millions of pages from cemetery and crematoria registers, photographs of memorials, cemetery plans and more. Records can be search by a name index.
Photographs and transcriptions of millions of gravestones from cemeteries around the world.
Profiles of several hundred mausolea found in the British Isles.
Several thousand transcribed memorials remembering those connected with the nautical occupations.
Santon Downham Obituaries
The UKs largest repository of obituaries, containing millions of searchable notices.
A growing collection currently containing over 425,000 abstracts of obituaries with reference to the location of the full obituary.
A collection of 364 obituaries of Quakers from the British Isles. The volume was published in 1849 and includes obituaries of those who died in late 1847 through 1848.
This transcribed and searchable work by Sir William Musgrave contains 10,000s of brief obituaries. The work is a reference point for other works containing information on an individual.
A text index and digital images of all editions of a journal containing medical articles and obituaries of medical practitioners.
Santon Downham Histories & Books
A detailed history of the county's hundreds, parishes and religious houses.
Describes the parishes in the three hundreds of Wangford, Mutford and Lothingland, in the north-east of the county.
Histories of Suffolk's parish churches, illustrated with a plethora of photographs.
Histories of Norfolk's parish churches, illustrated with a plethora of photographs.
A traveller's guide to four Southern counties.
Santon Downham School & Education Records
A name index connected to digital images of registers recording millions of children educated in schools operated by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. Records contain a variety of information including genealogical details, education history, illnesses, exam result, fathers occupation and more.
A name index linked to original images of registers recording the education and careers of teachers in England & Wales.
A name index linked to original images of short biographies for over 120,000 Oxford University students. This is a particularly useful source for tracing the ancestry of the landed gentry.
A transcript of a vast scholarly work briefly chronicling the heritage, education and careers of over 150,000 Cambridge University students. This is a particularly useful source for tracing the ancestry of the landed gentry.
A searchable database containing over 90,000 note-form biographies for students of Cambridge University.
Santon Downham Occupation & Business Records
An introduction to smuggling on the east coast of England, with details of the act in various regions.
Profiles of coal and metal mines in the south of England.
Short histories of former public houses, with photographs and lists of owners or operators.
An index to and images of registers recording over 3.7 million trade union members.
Books listing doctors who were licensed to operate in Britain and abroad. Contains doctor's residencies, qualification and date of registration.
Pedigrees & Family Trees Covering Santon Downham
A detailed history of the county's hundreds, parishes and religious houses.
Extensive and impeccably sourced genealogies for British, Irish & Manx royalty and nobility. Scroll down to 'British Isles' for relevant sections.
A searchable database of linked genealogies compiled from thousands of reputable and not-so-reputable sources. Contains many details on European gentry & nobility, but covers many countries outside Europe and people from all walks of life.
A searchable book, listing pedigrees of titled families and biographies of their members.
A book containing genealogies and biographies of Britain's titled families.
Santon Downham Royalty, Nobility & Heraldry Records
A detailed history of the county's hundreds, parishes and religious houses.
Photographs and descriptions of Suffolk's most illustrious church monuments, often featuring effigies, medieval inscriptions and heraldic devices.
Extensive and impeccably sourced genealogies for British, Irish & Manx royalty and nobility. Scroll down to 'British Isles' for relevant sections.
A searchable database of linked genealogies compiled from thousands of reputable and not-so-reputable sources. Contains many details on European gentry & nobility, but covers many countries outside Europe and people from all walks of life.
Over 600 pedigrees for English and Welsh families who had a right to bear a coat of arms.
Santon Downham Church Records
Histories of Suffolk's parish churches, illustrated with a plethora of photographs.
Histories of Norfolk's parish churches, illustrated with a plethora of photographs.
An index to names and places mentioned in act books of the Province of Canterbury. It records various licences and conferments, such as marriage and physician licences.
Photographs of churches of all denominations throughout England and part of Wales.
Documentation for those baptised, married and buried at England. Parish registers can assist tracing a family back numerous generations.
Biographical Directories Covering Santon Downham
A searchable book, listing pedigrees of titled families and biographies of their members.
A book containing genealogies and biographies of Britain's titled families.
A book containing genealogies and biographies of Britain's titled families.
Brief biographies of Anglican clergy in the UK.
A directory containing lengthy biographies of noted British figures. The work took over two decades to compile. Biographies can be searched by name and are linked to images of the original publication.
Santon Downham Maps
A collection of maps plotting the counties of Essex and Suffolk, and some of their settlements.
Digital images of maps covering the county.
Detailed maps covering much of the UK. They depict forests, mountains, larger farms, roads, railroads, towns, and more.
Maps showing settlements, features and some buildings in mainland Britain.
An index to 11,000,000 parcels of land and property, connected to digital images of registers that record their owner, occupier, description, agricultural use, size and rateable value.
Santon Downham Reference Works
A beginner’s guide to researching ancestry in England.
Compiled in 1831, this book details the coverage and condition of parish registers in England & Wales.
A comprehensive guide to researching the history of buildings in the British Isles.
A service that provides advanced and custom surname maps for the British Isles and the US.
A dictionary of around 9,000 mottoes for British families who had right to bear arms.
Civil & Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction
Historical Description
Downham, a village seated on the Little Ouse, and of which are related several very amazing particulars. Mr. Hollinshed tells us, that in October, 1566, there were taken near the bridge in this town, twenty-seven fishes of a prodigious size, the least of which was twenty feet in length. But what appears, still more extraordinary, is a kind of sand-flood, which began in the year 1668, and occasioned the town to be, called Sandy Downham; the circumstances of which are related in a letter written by Thomas Wright, esq., and inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 17. These wonderful sands had their rise from Lakenheath, a town about five miles to the south-west of Downham, where some large-hills, composed of sand, having their surface broken by a tempestuous south-west wind, were blown upon some neighbouring ground, which having only a thin coat of grass over it, was soon rotted by the other sand lying upon it, and accompanied it in its strange progress. Mr. Wright supposes, that at its first eruption, it did not cover above eight or ten acres of ground, but before it had been driven four miles, it covered above a thousand. All the opposition: it met with was from a farm-house, which the owner endeavoured to secure by raising fences against it but perceiving that this would not answer his purpose, he desisted from endeavouring to obstruct its course; and thus, by giving it a free passage, got rid of it in four or five years time. On its reaching Downham, it continued ten or twelve years in the skirts of the town, without doing any considerable damage; the reason of which, Mr. Wright imagined, was, because its current was then down a hill, which sheltered it from those winds which gave it motion; but the valley being once passed, it was driven above a mile up hill in two months time, and covered above two hundred acres of good corn land the same year. On its entering the body of that little town, it buried and destroyed several houses, and the people were at more expence in preserving the rest than the houses were worth. Mr. Wright at last gave the flood of sand some check, though for four or five years his success was doubtful. It had possessed all the avenues to his house, so that there was no passage to it but over two walls eight or nine feet in height, and it encompassed a small grove before his house, then almost buried in sand, and at one time had possessed his yard, and was blown up almost to the eaves of his out-houses. At the other end it had broken down his garden-wall, and stopped all passage that way. For four or five years this gentleman stopped it as well as he could with fir hedges, set upon one another, by which means he raised sand-banks near twenty yards high, and brought the sand into the compass of eight or ten acres; and then, by laying some hundred loads of dung and earth upon it, in one year reduced it again to firm land; afterwards he cleared all his walls, and by the assistance of his neighbours, cleared away in one month one thousand five hundred loads, and cut a passage to his house, through the main body of sand. That branch of the Little Ouse on which this town borders, and is better known by the name of Brandon, or Thetford river, was almost filled up with it; and had not this river stopped the progress of the sand into Norfolk, great part of that county had probably been ruined.
DOWNHAM (known as Santon Downham, from its being opposite to Santon, in the county of Norfolk) is a parish on the south bank of the Little Ouse navigable river, 2 ½ miles north-east from Brandon station on the Ely and Thetford section of the Great Eastern railway, and 5 west from Thetford, in the North Western division of the county, hundred and petty sessional division of Lackford, union and county court district of Thetford, rural deanery of Mildenhall, archdeaconry of Suffolk and diocese of Ely. The church of St. Mary is a small building of flint in the Norman, Transition and Early English styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch and an embattled western tower containing one bell: round the tower is an inscription, as well as monograms of our Saviour and St. Mary the Virgin, a merchant's mark and initials and the names of six persons: above the south doorway, now closed, is a stone panel, bearing a figure apparently of the Holy Lamb, surrounded by foliage in low relief: a handsome carved oak screen in the Decorated style separates the nave from the chancel: there are 100 sittings, 70 being free. The register dates from the year 1579. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £21, including glebe £36, in the gift of William Dalziel Mackenzie esq. and held since 1887 by the Rev. Michael Augustus Gathercole MA. of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, who is also rector of Santon. Downham Hall, the seat of Col. Edward Philippe Mackenzie D.L., J.P. is a noble mansion of white Suffolk brick, standing in a well timbered park, on the southern bank of the Little Ouse, and is approached from the Brandon and Thetford high roads by the carriage drives, each 1 mile in length, with entrance lodges; attached are extensive game preserves and gardens laid out in the Italian style: the estate was purchased in 1870 by the late Edward Makenzie esq. of Fawley Court, Buckinghamshire, and is now the property of his eldest son, William Dalziel Mackenzie esq. Within a quarter of a mile of the Hall is a mill, driven by steam, for grinding corn for the birds and cattle on the estate. The soil is light sand, and in 1688, in consequence of the sand being blown by continued high winds from the hills of Lakenheath (distant 5 miles south-west), several houses were buried and destroyed, and the river was choked up, and one farmer of the period, named Wright, had all the approaches to his residence so blocked up that in order to reach it he had to pass over a wall 8 feet high, the sand at one time filling his yard and reaching to the edges of his roof: for several years he raised furze hedges set upon one another, as fast as they were covered by the sands, and by this expedient raised banks near 20 yards high, bringing the sand into a compass of 8 or 10 acres, after which, by laying upon it great quantities of earth and manure, the whole was converted into a firm and solid mass, through which he cut a passage to his house. The parish contains 3,905 acres of land, the greater part of which was an open rabbit warren, but most of it has now been brought into cultivation and 16 of water; rateable value, £1,227; the population in 1881 was 101, and in 1891 was 68.
Church School (mixed), built for 30 children; average attendance, 20; supported by Col. E. P. Mackenzie D.L., J.P.