What are the Womens Institute Churchyard Surveys?
The Women’s Institute (WI) is a women’s benevolent society which is also involved in preservation work. Among other good works, they have conducted churchyard surveys in the United Kingdom. These surveys include recording the surviving tombstone inscriptions (commonly called monumental inscriptions or MIs) of the churchyards surveyed. The Norfolk Federation of Women’s Institutes began a project of recording Norfolk churchyard inscriptions in 1980. Copies of these surveys are available at the Norfolk Record Office. About one third of all Norfolk parishes have been surveyed by the WI. The Norfolk Federation of Women’s Institutes’ “Catalog of transcriptions of monumental inscriptions in Norfolk” is available from local LDS Family History Centers. The Family History Library catalog number is 1471496, Item 12. Thanks to Pauline Dodd & Anne Ringer for this information!
