Marriages from the beginning of 1813 to June 1837 at:

• Lamesley St. Andrew - 314 marrriages
• Long Newton St. Mary - 66 marrriages
• Merrington St. John the Evangelist - 214 marrriages
• Middleton St. George St. George - 47 marrriages
• Redmarshall St. Cuthbert - 54 marrriages, includes witnesses

1,596 marriages at Bishopwearmouth St. Michael & All Angels, from 1800 to the end of 1812. Includes witnesses, so be sure to try the new Witness search in Marriages - Sunderland.

• Penshaw baptisms 1818-1822 (709 baptisms)
• Penshaw burials 1818-1822 (333 burials)
• Penshaw marriages 1818- June 1837 (423 marriages)

These baptisms all contain the mother’s maiden name. These were transcribed from the Bishop’s Transcript of the original registers, except for the marriages of 1824 and 1836, which were transcribed from the original register. A number of entries were cross-checked against the original register and the Bishop’s Transcript has been found to be a very reliable source. If there is any doubt about an entry, you can always request a check of the original register.

Replaced baptism index 1810-1840 for Esh Laude Roman Catholic church with complete data, so those 262 baptisms are now immediately available.

539 baptisms in the year 1815 at South Shields St. Hilda

• 2,887 marriages at Jarrow St. Paul (1813-1837)
• 134 marriages at Kelloe St. Helen (1813-1837)

We are please to expose an additional 28,337 names to your searching eyes.  We have expanded our search code with a new checkbox (at the bottom of the Parish Record Options section of the search form) called:

Search for this person mentioned ONLY as a Witness, Godparent, Grandparent, Other Relative, Employer, etc.

Parish records can contain lots of hidden information that may provide clues to unraveling your ancestral mysteries. Baptisms may list godparents, grandparents, employers, or other relatives. Burials may list employers, siblings, spouses, an adult child, or other relatives. Marriages may have up to 6 witnesses and former spouses may be mentioned.  Until now, these ”peripherally involved” people were not checked during a search. Now they can be!

If you click this checkbox, the primary fields are not searched at the same time. We feel it would be unfair to show you a table of results where you are unable to tell if the person you searched for is a primary participant in the record (bride, groom, parent, child, deceased person) or a peripherally involved person, so we present these information in a completely separate search.

Please try it out and let me know what you think by emailing me from our Email Us link in the left menu! Also, a lot of code was changed, so if I broke something, please also let me know what isn’t working properly. And if anybody can think of a shorter but still descriptive name for this checkbox, please send me your suggestions!

PayPal has been temporarily removed as a payment option. We’ve been having many problems with them lately not notifying us of purchases in a timely manner. We hope to restore PayPal service by May 27.

UPDATE: PayPal access has been restored. We’ll see how it goes!

810 baptisms at Pittington St. Lawrence from 1740 to the end of 1787.

947 baptisms from the large parish of South Shields St. Hilda’s, from the beginning of 1813 to the end of 1814. As a port town, South Shields had lots of mariners, shipwrights, and associated professions, but also lots of people passing through on their way to and from other places. Sometimes if you can’t find the baptism of an ancestor where you expect it to be, it’s because the family went travelling and the baby was born “on the road” and christened in a parish far from their usual home.  This was especially true in port towns, which had more traffic than the average town and therefore more baptisms of non-residents. Try expanding your search to the ports and maybe you’ll find an ancestor far from home!