Searching Norfolk Marriage Bonds images on familysearch

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Please has anyone found a system for quickly finding one's way around a set of images?
There are 506 images in the set I'm currently searching but I can't work out any particular overall arrangement/system e.g date, alphabetical (either by surname or parish.) I know the names of bride and groom and the approximate date, but have no idea where the groom was from.

Jay

[kiterunner]

I've wondered the same thing in the past, but not come up with anything.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Thanks Kite - relieved to know it's not just me missing the obvious.

Jay

[Phoenix]

Fret not. I asked the same question at the Norfolk Record Office and they directed me to the patient tapping of a keyboard. They are getting them indexed.

As this is a mammoth project, and dependent on volunteers, it may take some time. Might be worth contacting them.

The problem is that the bonds appear to have been chucked in the air and thrown on the floor. As I'm sure you have discovered. Even the covering dates are often misleading.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Thanks Phoenix.
Perseverance paid off - it was image 317. I was then able to find the marriage record in the images of the Holme Hale registers.

Jay

[Phoenix]

Excellent!

I have found several things I was not looking for, but have notably failed on others.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

We shouldn't really moan, I suppose, rather celebrate that so many of these individual bits of paper have survived over the centuries.
When the Borthwick Institute at York was first established, cardboard boxes of random papers were quickly sent there by archive repository assistants who were so glad to get rid of them. Apparently, there was a huge number of boxes stuffed with what turned out to be the BT returns, going back to the year dot, which seemed to have been just dropped into whichever box was nearest. One member of staff made it her life's work to sort them all out into year order and then alphabetically by parish. Eventually an index was compiled and published, informing you which BT's were available for each parish and eventually the collection was filmed. Oh the sheer joy of knowing that there may be a chance of finding records where there were damaged registers or gaps. How we blessed that lady for her years of dedication.
Now of course, we expect them all to have been indexed and placed in a data base, so we can retrieve and view the information at the press of a button.

Jay