375 birth records of the Society of Friends (Quakers), covering 1775-1793. The Society of Friends records covered all of County Durham, southern Northumberland, and North Yorkshire. Typically, a Quaker birth record includes the birth date, parents, and witnesses to the birth, who may be relatives of the parents. For example:

• Ann Kitching, of Darlington, born 15 Jan 1776, daughter of William (weaver) & Ann Kitching
  Witnesses to the Birth: Ann Arrowsmith (midwife), Deborah Kitching, Ruth Kitching
• Joseph King, of St.Andrew’s, Newcastle upon Tyne, born 21 Oct 1787, son of Joseph (agent) & Mary King
  Witnesses to the Birth: George Grieve, Agnes Harrison
• Hugh Shaw, of Tewhitmyres in the parish of Crossgate, born 12 May 1787, son of John & Eleanor Shaw
  Witnesses to the Birth: Thomas Salkeld (surgeon)
• Hannah Wetherall, of Crathorne, Yorkshire, born 8 Aug 1787, daughter of Richard & Mary Wetherall
  Witnesses to the Birth: William Weddell (surgeon), Mary Flounders

Because these records are not limited to a civil registration district, they will show up as Durham Diocese District, which is not technically correct, but it does describe the geographical area fairly well. If you limit your search by specifying a particular District, these records will not show up.

These records are not indexed by the IGI nor by any other online source that we know of, so this is the first time they will reach a wide audience. Perhaps your ancestors were Quakers and you don’t know it yet !

5,786 burials at Whickham St. Mary in Gateshead district, covering 1854-1901. Residences mentioned (on both sides of the River Tyne) include Axwell Colliery, Bensham, Benwell, Blaydon, Burnopfield, Byermoor, Byker, Chester-le-Street, Clock Mill, Crookgate, Cut Thorn, Derwent Haugh, Dipton, Dun Cow Lane, Dunston, the Dunston Asylum, Fellside, Gateshead, Gibside, Heaton, Heworth, Hill Head, Jarrow, Lamesley, Lobley Hill, Marley Hill, Middletown, Newcastle, North Shields, Norwood, Penny Fine, Scotswood, Streetgate (Lamesley), Sunniside, Swalwell, Teams, Tynemouth, Whickham, Winlaton, Windy Hill, Woodhouses, and Wrekenton.

Most of these burials do not have details other than age and abode, but some do if the cause of death was unusual. Some samples:

• 18 Jan 1854 Barbara Robson, of Lobley Hill, age: 26
• 23 Feb 1866 Elizabeth Taylor, of Dunston Bank, age: 100
• 21 Jul 1877 George Price Blackett, of Whickham, age: 39, Medical Doctor
• 9 Sep 1887 George Dixon, of Whickham, age: 44, suicide by drowning
• 13 Feb 1896 Jacob Handy, of Whickham, age: 49, killed in a mine explosion at Whickham.
• 8 Sep 1901 Sidney Fielding Chapman, of Swalwell, age: 2 months

We now have all the recorded burials at Whickham from 1576 to the end of 1901.

Replaced the index to burials at Whickham St. Mary for 1770-1789 with full details, so those 2,591  burials are now instantly available, including 2 we missed the first time around.  Some samples of burials in this period:

• 14 Jan 1770 Elizabeth Bewick, of Lowhand, daughter of Thomas Bewick
• 24 Oct 1778 Ralph Fletcher, of Swalwell, died in Poor House
• 14 Jun 1783 Jane Spotswood, of Whickham, wife of Thomas Spotswood
• 5 Nov 1789 Elizabeth Pescod, of Swalwell (Crowley`s factory), daughter of Joseph Pescod

241 baptisms at Barnard Castle St Mary covering 1814-1815.

Samples:

• 8 Oct 1815 William Ewbank Wallis, of Hawksley Hill, son of John (hind) & Ann Wallis
• 6 Feb 1814 Anne Arrowsmith, of Marwood, daughter of John (husbandman) & Margaret Arrowsmith

1,646 burials at Wallsend St. Peter covering 1872-1921. A scarlet fever epidemic claimed about 60 people in 1873-74. Burials at this church decreased significantly in 1879.

• 05 Aug 1872 John Wood, of Carville, age: 35, typhoid
• 17 Sep 1876 Ann Fisher, of Birkett Street, Wallsend, age: 99
• 03 Nov 1877 George Renwick, of 66 Stephenson Street, Willington Quay, age: 96
• 25 Nov 1893 William Russell, of The Green, Wallsend, age: 53, died Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight

Residences mentioned include Bigges Main, Byker, Carville, Howdon, Howdon Pans, Jarrow, Newcastle, North Shields, Percy Main, Rose Hill, Tynemouth, Walker, Wallsend, Willington, and Willington Quay.

1,566 burials at Jarrow St. Paul and Heworth St. Mary. Until May 1809, Heworth was a chapelry in Jarrow parish, and burials at Heworth were recorded in the Jarrow register with each burial stating whether the person was buried at Jarrow or Heworth. There is some confusion around the time the registers were separated. Specifically, we found:

• In the Bishop’s Transcript of the Jarrow/Heworth register, there is a section of burials from May 1808 to March 1809 that has a cover sheet labeled “burials at Heworth”. However, this section of burials could not be found in either the Jarrow register or the newly separated Heworth register that is on microfilm at the Durham County Record Office. We have assumed these burials occurred at Heworth and have filed them under Heworth. It is possible that this section was lost from the registers when they were separated but retained in the bishop’s transcript. There is a separate section of burials (in both the register and the transcript) covering the same time frame with a cover sheet labeled “burials at Jarrow”, which reinforces our belief that the first section is burials at Heworth. The 1808 burial below is an example of one of these.
• There was a section of burials from 27 March 1811 to the end of 1811 in the bishop’s transcript that could not be found in the Jarrow register at the record office, but the register has a section from 1 Apr 1811 to the end of 1811 that is not in the bishop’s transcript. In other words, the register and the transcript are completely different for this period. We’re not sure what to think, but we have labeled both sections as Jarrow burials. The abodes in both sections are consistent with Jarrow parish abodes.
• This clerk often described the parents as “of” some place, which can be interpreted as either “they live there now” or “they were born there”. We researched several of these and determined, from other records, that the clerk always meant “native of”, so we have added “[native]” to clarify this . The 1811 burial below is an example of this.

Samples:

• 8 Feb 1798 Margaret Hutchinson late Gilpatrick, of St. Nicholas, Newcastle, age: 79, died 6 Feb, wife of John Hutchinson (gentleman), buried at Jarrow
• 24 Jun 1810 Thomas Catterick, of Templetown, age: 68, died 22 Jun, husbandman, [native] of Houghton Le Spring
• 21 Oct 1811 William Casher, of Templetown, age: 2 years 6 months, died 19 Oct, son of John Casher (weaver [native] of Houden Wood Edge near Manchester) & Frances Clementson (daughter of Joseph Clementson [native] of Durham), killed by a coal wagon
• 11 Jul 1808 Isabella Stark late Marshall, of Windy Nook, age: 36, died 8 Jul, wife of John Stark and daughter of Thomas Marshall (of North Shields), buried at Heworth
  [Note: This burial is from the Bishop's Transcript of the Jarrow register, in a section that occurs after baptisms ending March 1809, with a cover sheet labeled "burials at Heworth"; however, this entire section of burials from 11 May 1808 to 21 Mar 1809 cannot be found in the Jarrow or Heworth register microfilms at the Durham County Record Office. It may have been lost from the original register but retained in the bishop's transcript.]

Burials for 1812 at Jarrow and burials at Heworth for 1808-1812 will follow soon.

Chipping away at the lack of marriage witnesses, we have added:

• witnesses to marriages  at Stanhope 1820-22
• witnesses to marriages  at Middleton in Teesdale 1813-1816
• witnesses to marriages  at Houghton le Spring 1813-19, and found one marriage we missed the first time around

which adds 1,337 more names to search in. If you previously purchased a marriage in the above places & times, you can view the witnesses by clicking My Previous Orders and reviewing the marriage.

Apparently the link I provided to the Dinah Armstrong story is not viewable in the UK due to copyright laws. I have extracted the relevant pages from the book and made a separate PDF and stored it here:

   http://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/DinahArmstrong.pdf

I am fairly sure that the author of a book printed in 1887 has been dead more than the 70 years required. It’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Replaced the index to burials at Whickham St. Mary for 1750-1769 with full details, so those 2,721  burials are now instantly available, including 8 we missed the first time around.  Some samples of burials in this period:

• 30 May 1750 Elizabeth Wailes, of Lowhand, widow of William Wailes
• 8 Mar 1756 Susanna Smith, of Whickham, daughter of Michael Smith
• 28 May 1763 Mr. Richard Teasedale, of Ryton, age: 103
• 19 Oct 1764 Rev`d. William Leeke, of Stanhope, age: 75, accidently drowned at Team Gut
• 23 May 1762 Mark Dods, of Swalwell (Crowley`s factory), son of Mark Dods by his wife Elizabeth
• 8 Oct 1769 Catherine Bennett, of Swalwell (Crowley`s factory), wife of William Bennett
• 24 Jul 1764 Dinah Armstrong, of Hexham, [Northumberland], found hanged & drowned at Dunston. Coroners inquest verdict was wilful murder

The fascinating story of Dinah Armstrong, who was not hanged or murdered after all, can be read here:

• http://books.google.com/books?id=09AGAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA202&ots=_lfMhuGjI4&dq=dinah%20armstrong%20hexham%20hanged&pg=PA202#v=onepage&q&f=false

161 burials at Barnard Castle St Mary for 1813-1814.

Samples:

• 2 Jan 1813 Robert Kipling, of Barnard Castle, age: 87
• 27 Oct 1813 Margaret Collinson, of Butter Knowle, Parish of St Helens Auckland, age: 31
• 23 Dec 1814 Christopher Dent, of Barnard Castle, age: 80