One day.... in a Record Office
 

One bite at the cherry.

I plan to be at Norfolk Record Office, looking at C17th stuff.

I have
Copeman (Sharrington)
Alborough (Sharrington) and
Wacey (Bagthorpe/Bircham)

NROCAT does actual searches. No wild cards, no fuzzy.
I have found EIGHT spellings of Wacey, including what is transcribed as Waser. Do I check Wafer as well?!!

Can someone suggest how I stop panicking so that I find the records I want?

This has to be wills and possibly original documents, but I won't have time for the manorial records my soul craves.

Have you tried with a V instead of a W at the start, Phoenix? My OH's Norfolk Vincents are sometimes down as Winson.

*sobs faintly*

As a child I was fascinated by Sir Cloudsley Shovel because his name could be spelled so many different ways. He had, of course, connections with Norfolk.

*OC gazes deeply into her crystal ball*

I see a dishevelled figure which looks like Phoenix. She has just made a massive breakthrough on her family by discovering an unknown, uncatalogued box of original documents dating from 1232 forwards. It is seven and a half minutes to closing time.

OC

OOh, you tease, OC! :d

Oh dear, my reputation precedes me!

And because I am slightly more considerate of archivists than I once was, I do try to pack up a couple of minutes before closing time.

I get to spend so little time with real records that I try to plan the day with military precision. Wish I could plan the rest of my life like that!

Not just you, Phoenix. I cannot count the number of times I've discovered something thrilling just before the archive closed...and in the knowledge that I could not possibly get back to the archive for at least six months.

OC

We've all done that Phoenix - I have, and at the Norfolk RO!!!

Try putting the parish name in the search box. There may be a lot of pages to search but all the surname variations are easy to spot.

I've done that, Glen!

The problem with Norfolk is that the parishes are so miniscule that if you sneeze, someone catches cold three parishes away.

And then they suddenly up sticks and travel across the county, with no consideration for their descendants!