752 baptisms at Stockton St. Thomas 1791-1797

3,344 burials at Bishopwearmouth Cemetery for 1896 and 1897. Unfortunately the clerk stopped recording the professions of fathers and spouses, but at least he still listed the father (or single mother) of deceased children, and the spouses of deceased women, which is still a big improvement over a parish register for this period.

2,890 baptisms at Stockton St. Thomas 1762-1790.

This is an exciting new collection because this parish is not indexed by the I.G.I. and thus has not been widely available. We will continue working forward in time to fill the gaps in our Stockton St. Thomas baptism collection – currently we have the following years:
1762 – 1790
1813 – 1814
1829 – 1832

Some examples:

• 21 Mar 1762 Robert Pace, son of Francis Pace (shoemaker) & Mary
• 23 Jan 1774 Robert Brown, son of Isabella Brown, Spuria
  [Note: the Latin word "Spuria" was used to indicate a birth out of wedlock]

Another 10 years of records from Penshaw All Saints (15 years for marriages):

• 1,232 baptisms 1798-1807
• 430 marriages 1797-1812, giving us a continuous run of Penshaw marriages from 1762 to mid-1837. Includes marriage witnesses.
• 591 burials 1798-1807

These were transcribed from the Bishop’s Transcript, with about 7% of them checked against the film of the original parish register.

This clerk started reporting the nativity (birthplace) of both parents in baptisms in Nov 1797. In early 1798, he switched back to reporting the current abode of the parents and the nativity of only the mother (and he was inconsistent about including that), and continued this practice for 1798 and most of 1799.  For example:

• 8 Apr 1798 Ann Oats, of Wood Side House, born 28 Jan, 3rd daughter of Thomas Oats (keelman) by his wife Isabella Dobson
• 1 Apr 1798 Robert Allen, of Coxgreen, born 4 Mar, 5th son of John Allen (mason) by his wife Jane Turnbull (native of Chester-le-Street)

Starting in Dec 1799, he recorded the nativity of both parents and continued this practice through the end of this data set, as he was supposed to. For example:

• 16 Jul 1801 Jane Milburn, born 26 May, 6th daughter of James Milburn (banksman, native of this chapelry) by his wife Ann Robson (native of Chester)

Burials are similarly detailed, but recording of the father’s nativity (for the death of a child) was inconsistent until 1802:

• 10 Nov 1802 John Robinson, of Offerton Haugh, age: 12, died 8 Nov, son of Robert Robinson (tailor, native of Monkwearmouth) by his wife Jane White, native of Staindrop

One wonderful thing was that in this burial set, a deceased married woman was usually listed by her maiden name, and, for a deceased married man, the wife’s maiden name was listed. For example:

• 16 May 1802 Mary Appleby, of New Lambton, age: 30, died 14 May, native of Church Kelloe, wife of James Christy (pitman, native of Rodberry, Northumberland)
• 24 Jul 1802 Thomas Beckwith, of Penshaw Staiths, age: 77, died 22 Jul, wright, native of Houghton-le-Spring, husband of the late Eleanor Bolton (native of North Shields, Northumberland)

We have cross-indexed these women so that a search for Mary Christy or Mary Appleby would turn up the first burial above. To find Eleanor Bolton in the 2nd burial, you would need to put a check in the box labeled “Search for this person mentioned ONLY as a Witness, Godparent, Grandparent, Other Relative, Employer, etc.”

A tidbit I forgot to include in the last Penshaw update notice: At the end of 1777, a page listed the following people and their occupations:

• Robert Bailey (parish clerk & schoolmaster)
• Matthew Stoll (schoolmaster)
• midwives Isabel Barrowfoot, Mary Pearson, Mary Markham

595 baptisms at South Shields St. Hilda’s for the year 1827

944 burials at Gateshead Fell St. John 1890-1898.

This register primarily covered residents of Blue Quarries, Chowdean, Deckham Place, Felling, Gateshead, Low Fell, Mount Pleasant, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sheriff Hill, Team Colliery, Windy Nook, and Wrekenton.

2,109 baptisms from Apr 1891 to Apr 1903. Most include the child’s birthdate. Sample:

• 26 Jul 1891 Robert Walter Staincliffe, of 11 Water St., born 11 Jul 1891, child of Robert Robinson Staincliffe (caulker) & Gertrude Eliza Staincliffe

1,837 burials at Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, covering the year 1895.

A new cemetery official took over the keeping of the register on 23 March 1895, and in addition to having tiny, cramped handwriting that is very difficult to read, by June he had stopped recording the professions of fathers and male spouses. Sometimes he put only an initial for the name of a father or male spouse. Still, this cemetery register provides far more information than the corresponding church burial register, which would not contain any information about parents or spouses or professions of the deceased.

Replaced the following baptism indexes with full details so these 1,412 baptisms are instantly available:

• Birtley (St. Joseph, Roman Catholic) 1745 – 1840
• Pelton (Holy Trinity) 1843 – 1851
• Chester-le-Street (Congregational) 1813 – 1837

Also replaced the marriage and burial indexes for Pelton Holy Trinity 1843-51 with full details so those 277 burials and 90 marriages are now instantly available.

We knew that many of the burials we had at Monkwearmouth St. Peter from 1768 to 1791 were extracts from the original register. What we didn’t realize was that the original register existed on microfilm at the Durham Record Office. We recently discovered this, and proceeded to transcribe all the burials from it. This resulted in:

• 2,025 new burials between 1768 and 1786
• 516 burials changed from 1768 to 1791, where the register gave additional details – primarily names of mothers, occupations of fathers and spouses, and abodes. For example, here is our previous extract of this burial:
     13 Dec 1782 Margaret Swann, daughter of William
  and the new version now reads:
     13 Dec 1782 Margaret Swann, of Wearmouth, daughter of William Swann (carpenter) & Hannah
  We have added all the details to the existing records. We have emailed copies to the customers who had purchased records that have been changed.

We invite you all to search again in Burials – Sunderland with the Event year set to 1778 +- 20 years – perhaps your long-lost ancestor’s burial in Monkwearmouth is here after all !