At Hamsterley St. James in Auckland district:  529 baptisms and 373 burials covering 1791-1812 and 142 marriages for 1798-1812, including witnesses.

Residences mentioned besides Hamsterley include Beckside, Bedburn, Bishop Auckland, Burnley Row, Butterknowle, Copley Bent, Crane Row, Eudon Leazes, Fitches, Folly, Gaunless, Gyll Bank, Haggerlees, Hartop Mill, Help Park, High Wham, Hoppiland, Howlee, Kay’s Lee, Knave’s Mire, Low Wham, Macneal, Malings Lee, Mayland, Moorhill, Morley, Pennington Rake, Podge Hole, Pooltree, Potters Cross, Ravensford, Redford, Shipley, Shull, Snape Gate, Softley, Southside, St. Helen Auckland, Stone Chester, Streatlam, the Edge, Trow Lane, Walesfield, Wash Beck, Weather Hill, West Pitts, Witton-le-Wear, and Woodlands.

Sample baptisms:

• 5 Aug 1791 Mary Armory, of Hamsterley, daughter of Jonathan & Elizabeth Armory
• 10 Mar 1799 Charles Watson, born 27 Dec 1798, 1st son of Charles Watson (taylor, native of this parish) by his wife Elizabeth Arrowsmith (native of Bernard Castle, relict of John Breaks, farmer, of the same parish)
• 27 Dec 1812 Ann Wandlass, of Hoppiland, born 20 Nov, 3rd daughter of John Wandlass (husbandman, native of Shildon) by Ann Littlefair (daughter of Peter Littlefair, native of this parish)

Sample marriages:

• 30 Apr 1798 Andrew Cowens, of the parish of Witton le Wear married Mary Linslah, of this parish, by banns
  Witnesses: George Cruddace, William Sponton, Ann Cowens, Ann Linslah, Alice Herron
• 10 Nov 1810 Anthony Barker, of the parish of Cockfield married Sarah Blackett, of this parish, by banns
  Witnesses: William Surtees, Jane Bell, George White

Sample burials:

• 11 Jan 1791 Mary Wardell, of Hamsterley, supposed wife of John Wardell
• 3 Jul 1794 Dinah Mowbray, of Hamsterley, daughter of the late Aaron & Ann Mowbray, P [=poor]
• 16 Jan 1797 Mary Wilson, of Wolsingham, a poor woman who perished through the inclemency of the weather
• 1 Apr 1797 Ann Smurthwaite, of Woodlands, age: 95, wife of James Smurthwaite
• 10 Feb 1802 Mary Taylor, of Southside, age: 1, died 8 Feb, daughter of James Taylor & Tamar his wife late Sewell
• 29 Aug 1812 Mary Chapman late Wallace, of Hamsterley, age: 85, died 26 Aug, widow of Thomas Chapman (gentleman)

992 marriages at West Hartlepool St. Paul, from the first marriage at this church in November 1885 to mid-March 1906. The parish of Hartlepool St. Paul was carved out of Stranton All Saints in June 1886. Residences mentioned are mostly street addresses in West Hartlepool, but also include Barnard Castle, Darlington, Greatham, Harrogate, Hull, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, North Ormesby, North Shields, Redcar, Scarborough, Seaton Carew, Stockton, and Whitby – clearly this parish serving residents of Yorkshire as well as County Durham. There were also quite a few marriages of  foreign mariners, mostly from Germany or Norway.

Sample marriages:

• 25 Apr 1886 Joseph Hill (bachelor, bicycle maker), age 22, of West Hartlepool, son of Bennett Marshall Hill (sailmaker), married Mary Alice Redshaw (spinster), age 18, of West Hartlepool, daughter of Andrew Redshaw (driver)
  Witnesses: W. H. Wallace, W. Fleetham
• 8 Feb 1896 John Goodrick Askew (widowed, engine driver), age 50, of 12 Murray St., son of Henry Askew (farmer, deceased), married Mary Emily Stewart (spinster), age 31, of 130 Murray St., daughter of Jonathan Stewart (mariner, deceased)
  Witnesses: Harold Short, H. J. Waller Smith
• 13 Jan 1906 William Milburn (widowed, Engineer), age 60, of 1 Alliance St., son of Thomas Milburn (game keeper, deceased), married Mary Jane Graham (widow), age 65, of 25 Mulgrave Rd., daughter of Robert Johnson (moulder, deceased)
  Witnesses: Septimus Sanderson, Lucy Mary Sanderson

Note that because we cross-index the women by their maiden surnames, a search for Mary Graham or Mary Johnson would turn up the last marriage. Searching by maiden surname is a useful way to follow a woman through multiple marriages.

323 baptisms and 213 burials at Esh St. Michael in Lanchester district covering 1852-1871, from a combination of the Bishop’s Transcript and the parish register. Residences mentioned besides Esh include Biggin, Blackburn, Brancepeth, Broad Gate, Durham St. Oswald, Durham St. Margaret, Cornsay Colliery, Esh Colliery, Esh New Colliery, Esh Winning, Flass, Greenland, Hag House, Hamsteels, High Finings, Hill Top, Quebec, Red House, Rowley, Tile Sheds, Ushaw Moor, Wall Nook, and Waterhouses.

Sample baptisms:

• 24 Feb 1856 Isabella Cant, of Wall Nook, daughter of John (mason) & Isabella Cant
• 7 Feb 1864 Susan Garthwaite, of Darlington, daughter of Thomas (railway guard) & Hannah Garthwaite
• 27 Aug 1871 Ambrosina Isabella Elrington, of Cornsay Colliery, child of Joseph Thomas Elrington (shoemaker) & Margaret

Sample burials:

• 23 May 1854 Robert Fenwick, of Esh, age: 86
• 18 Jun 1864 Barbara Stringer, of [the] Parish of St Margaret, Crossgate, Durham, age: 91
• 12 Nov 1871 Jabez Walburn, of Hill Top, Esh, age: 42

882 baptisms and 478 burials at Penshaw All Saints in the district of Houghton-le-Spring, covering 1825-1830.

Residences mentioned besides Penshaw include Biddick, Bowes House, Burnmoor, Carr Houses, Coxgreen, D Pit Row, Elbay, Great Lumley, Herrington Burn, Laidler’s Pit, Low Lambton, Low Marley, Middle Rainton, Mill Row, New Lambton, New Penshaw, New Wining or Winning, Newbottle, Offerton Haugh, Penshaw Staiths, Philadelphia, Reed Mills, Shiney Row, Wapping, and White Field Pit.

Penshaw baptisms for this period include the mother’s maiden surname (yay!) and often the child’s birth date. Some samples:

• 23 Jan 1825 Sarah Collingwood, of Shiney Row, born 26-Jul 1824, daughter of Jonathan Collingwood (waggoner) & Esther Minns
• 24 Feb 1828 Jane Boutflour, of Offerton Wood House, daughter of George Boutflour (joiner) & Mary Ann Ferry
• 26 Dec 1830 Isabella Duncan, of Penshaw, born 27-Mar, daughter of George Duncan (shopkeeper) & Margaret Nicholson

There is, however, a larger-than-normal amount of surname confusion and variation in these records, compared to other parishes. There is a mother whose surname is recorded in different baptisms as Hann and Handy, another who is listed as Gordon, Gardner, and Burdon, and another who is listed as both Southwick and Suggett. We have tried to catch all of these, compare them to the parents’ marriages, and cross-index them under the appropriate names.

Sample burials:

• 17 Mar 1825 Isabella Lynn, of New Wining, age: 95
• 26 Jan 1828 Thomas Potter Hutchinson, of Shiney Row, age: infant
• 6 Jan 1830 Elizabeth Kay, of Coxgreen, age: 102

848 witnesses and consent details added to our existing 387 marriages at Darlington St. Cuthbert’s covering 1833 to mid-1837 when civil registration began. Some of these provide useful parental details (and likely relatives among the witnesses) such as this one:

• 7 Aug 1836 Thomas Redburn (bachelor), of this parish married Mary Ann Humphreys (spinster), of the parish of Haughton-le-Skerne, by licence with consent of Thomas Humphreys the father of the above
  Witnesses: Mark Davison, Jacob Humphreys, Elizabeth Redburn, Thomas Humphreys

but most are terser, like this:

• 7 Mar 1837 Alexander Reid (widower), of the parish of Gateshead married Janet Elizabeth Wemyss (spinster), of this parish, by licence
  Witnesses: Thomas Wemyss, Eleanor Wemyss, A.J. Wemyss, Anne Wemyss

Normally in this period, consent is not mentioned, or if it is, the parent’s name is not mentioned; it just says “by consent of her father”. However, the names of the witnesses may prove helpful in identifying a person’s family.

As usual, if you previously purchased a marriage at Darlington in this period, you can now view the witnesses by clicking My Previous Orders and reviewing the marriage.

3,361 baptisms and 2,196 burials at South Shields Holy Trinity, from the time the church was built in 1834 to the end of 1848. Holy Trinity was built to serve the High Shields district of St. Hilda’s parish, and became a separate parish in 1848. These records are from the Bishop’s Transcript, with some checking against the parish register.

Residences mentioned (besides streets in South Shields) include Academy Hill, Archers Hill, Barnes, Boldon Lane, Corstorphine Town, Dean Brewery, Dean Farm, Deans, East Boldon, East Holborn, Felling Shore, Harton, Harton Colliery, Howdon (Wallsend), Jarrow Alkali Works, Jarrow Slake, Johnson’s Hill, Laygate, North Shields, Pelaw Main, Simonside, Stay-the-Voyage (Boldon), Swan Hill, Temple Town, West Docks, West Harton, West Holborn, Westoe, and Wind Mill Hill.

Sample baptisms – some have birth dates, and the last sample here is a bit unusual:

• 5 Oct 1834 Joseph Hindmarsh Temple, of Laygate, son of William (blacksmith) & Elizabeth Temple
• 29 Jan 1841 Margaret Turvey, of South Shields, daughter of William (innkeeper) & Mary Turvey
• 10 Dec 1848 William Smithson Wiseman, of South Shields, born 1-Nov, son of Michael Wiseman (cooper) & Mary Ann Wiseman
• 9 Apr 1845 Ann late Mackenzie, born 21-Feb 1822, a married woman, daughter of John (mariner) & Margaret Mackenzie, late of North Shields
  [Note: Ann's married surname is not given in this entry.]

Sample burials:

• 12 Feb 1836 John Dodds, of Cornwallis Square, age: 102
• 30 Jun 1839 Matthew Gibson, of Temple Town, age: 38, the first interred of the 51 men killed by the explosion in St. Hilda’s Pit on 28 June 1839.
• 7 Mar 1840 David Phillips, age: 17, died on board the “Anna Sophia” at sea from Liverpool. By Coroners Warrant.
• 17 Dec 1848 Dorothy Hodgson, of Windmill Hill, age: 77

You can read more about the dreadful explosion of 28 June 1839 that took the lives of 51 men and boys here. Twenty were buried on June 30th at Holy Trinity.

1,082 baptisms at Pittington St. Lawrence covering 1840-1851.

Residences mentioned besides Pittington include Belmont, Broomside, Broomside Pit, Cassop Moor, Castle Eden, Coalford, Coxhoe, Easington Lane, Elemore Grange, Elemore Vale, Fatfield House, Gilesgate Moor, Hallgarth, Haswell, Hetton on the Hill, Kelloe, Littletown, Ludworth, Lumley, Moorsley, New Durham, New Lambton, New Pittington, Old Pit, Sherburn, Sherburn Hill, Sherburn Pit Row, Shiney Row, South Hetton, Spy Hall,  Sunderland, Thornley, West Sherburn, and Whitwell.

The Pittington register suffers from several gaps in the recording of baptisms. A note in placed after April 28th, 1839 in the baptism register reads:

“I hereby certify that the Register of Baptisms in this book, numbered from 52 to 1100 inclusive were copied by me from sheets of paper and fly-leaves of other Registers on which they had been written by Dr. Miller. For several years baptisms in this parish had been registered on loose sheets of paper, some of which have been lost, which accounts for the omissions in this book from number 191 to 448. Dr. Miller himself had begun to copy these sheets from the beginning of this book and had proceeded down to number 51. When I came as his Curate in the year 1849, I endeavoured to collect and copy these papers, but only a portion of these could be found” – Pittington Vicarage, January 21st 1855 – T. N. Wannop”

The register resumes on 26 July 1840. That’s 257 baptisms that were never recorded in the register and are thus now lost forever. There is another suspicious gap in the baptisms between 29 Nov 1846 when the current register ends and the beginning of a new register on 23 Jan 1847, but there is no note to explain whether no children were baptized during that period or their baptisms were just not recorded in the register. We also have to wonder, if the priest was in the habit of writing the baptisms on scraps of paper and recording them later (or never), how many other baptisms went unrecorded during the 1838-1849 period. It would explain why we’ve been unable to find certain people’s baptisms at Pittington when all the evidence says they were born there in the early 1840s.

Samples:

• 16 Aug 1840 George Pounder, of Pittington, born 22-Jul, child of Paul (labourer) & Ann Pounder
• 26 Oct 1851 William Best, of Hasting House, child of William (farmer) & Frances Best

and how about this mouthful ?

• 22 Sep 1850 Joseph Dryden Fortune Redhead Lambton Morland, of Pittington, child of Peter (pitman) & Rebecca Morland

At Darlington St. Cuthbert, from the Bishop’s Transcript:

• 11,627 baptisms from 1 Jan 1813 to 7 June 1867
• 7,903 burials from 1 Jan 1813 to 1 July 1856, when St. Cuthbert’s churchyard was closed to burials
• 2,560 witnesses added to our 1,186 existing marriages covering 1813-1832, plus we corrected several errors found during this process and added one marriage we’d missed the first time through the register

In the baptisms of illegitimate children, until 1819, the clerk continued the immensely valuable 1798-1812 practice of naming the mother’s father (or previous husband if she was a widow), as seen in the first 2 samples below:

• 11 Jan 1813 Mary Ann Walker, of Darlington, illegitimate daughter of Mary Walker (single woman, daughter of John Walker, gun-smith)
• 6 Feb 1818 Ann Kirkup, of Darlington, illegitimate daughter of Ann Kirkup (widow of the late John Kirkup, labourer)
• 11 Jul 1830 Thomas Pemberton, of Darlington, son of James (flaxdresser) & Mary Pemberton
• 9 May 1837 Maria Dinsdale, of Darlington, daughter of Anthony (clerk at the Joint Stock Bank) & Jane Dinsdale

Here is an example of surname variation in baptisms:

• 22 Sep 1850 Jane Ann Gowland, of Darlington, child of Ambrose (hair dresser) & Jane Gowland
• 11 Apr 1852 William Gowen [Gowland], of Darlington, child of Ambrose (barber) & Sarah Gowen [Gowland]

Note that the surname varies from Gowland to Gowen and in the 2nd entry, the wife is named Sarah, yet the 1861 census shows Ambrose Gowland a hair dresser in Darlington with his wife Jane and children Jane Ann and William of the right ages, and there is no record of a marriage in between to Sarah. We suspect that both Gowen and Sarah are both clerical errors.

Sample burials:

• 16 Aug 1817 Isabella Burnsides, of Bond-Gate, Darlington, age: 104
• 14 Mar 1820 Benjamin Garnett, of Salutation in this parish, age: 102
• 13 Apr 1820 Benjamin Woodhouse, of Northgate, Darlington, age: 22, a private in the 33rd Regt of Foot
• 13 Apr 1843 Mary Fawcett, of Work House, Darlington, age: 99
• 19 Jun 1856 Charlotte Branston, of Blackwell, Darlington, age: 25

Darlington marriages in the first part of this period are nice because James Topham, the sub-curate, decided it would be a good idea to include the occupation of the groom when recording the marriage – he even wrote a note in the page margin about this, to wit: “I have inserted the man’s profession or business, and the woman, whether she is a spinster or a widow, thinking it better to proceed so.”  A few marriages include the name of the consenting parent of a minor – this is quite rare in this period. Unfortunately, in Oct 1820, Richard Atkinson took over as sub-curate and stopped recording occupations. Samples:

• 20 Mar 1813 Joseph Lumley (chaise driver), of this parish married Esther Garrat (spinster), of this parish, by banns
  Witnesses: John Dinsdale, Mary Bailey
• 31 Jan 1820 John Appleby (butcher), of this parish married Margaret Bulmer (spinster), of this parish, by banns
  Witnesses: Elizabeth Bradley, William Longstaff
• 18 Sep 1828 William Wright (bachelor), of the parish of Barnard Castle, son of Henry Wright, married Jane Bowbank (spinster), of this parish, by licence with consent of Henry Wright, father of William Wright
  Witnesses: John Walker, Robert Hall Naylor
• 11 Oct 1832 Thomas Glaholm (widower), of the parish of Gateshead married Eliza Nell (spinster), of this parish, by licence
  Witnesses: May Nell, Harriet Nell, Margaret Nell, Richard Gibbs

Replaced the index to marriage bonds in the years 1745-1749 with full details, so those 1,482 records are now instantly available, including 3 new bonds that we missed the first time around.

Marriage bonds often provide ages, occupations, and place of residence for the bride and groom (and sometimes a parent of a minor) during a period when marriage registers did not provide that information. Please read the Marriage Bonds section of the Transcription Samples page for a description of what information is found in bonds, allegations, and associated documents, and how we present that information. For example:

• 5 Jan 1745 William Usher (merchant), age 28, of St.John, Newcastle-upon-Tyne obtained a licence to marry Ruth Humble (widow), age 22, of Newburn, Northumberland, directed to Newburn or St.John
  Surety: Charles Thompson, yeoman, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
  [Note: married 29 Jan at Newburn]
• 8 Aug 1749 Jonathan Taylerson (yeoman), age 24, of Shotton, Easington obtained a licence to marry Mary Lightfoot, age 19, of Pittington, daughter of Robert Lightfoot (consents to the marriage), directed to Easington or Pittington, or St.Mary-le-Bow, North Bailey, Durham City
  Surety: Robert Lightfoot, butcher, of Easington
  [Note: married 28 Aug at Pittington]

Marriage bonds cover the entire Diocese of Durham i.e. Durham, Northumberland, North Yorkshire. There are a few licences in our collection that were issued by the Diocese of York. Because bonds cover the whole diocese, there is no way to limit your search of bonds to a single district. If you select a district from the District menu, your selection will be ignored when the marriage bonds database is searched.

998 marriages at Seaton Carew Holy Trinity in Hartlepool district, covering 1842-1955. These are fully-detailed marriages with witnesses.

The parish of Seaton Carew Holy Trinity was created in 1842 from the parish of Stranton All Saints. Residences listed include many street addresses in Seaton Carew, plus abodes of Billingham, Darlington, Easington Colliery, Greatham, Guisborough, Hunter House, Hurworth, Hutton Henry, Longhill, Middlesbrough, New Shildon, Owton Grange, Shotton Colliery, Seaton Snook, Station Lane, Stockton, Stranton, Trimdon Station, West Hartlepool, and Wolviston.

Samples:

• 5 May 1843 George Burlinson (widowed, bricklayer), full age, of Seaton Carew, son of John Burlinson (husbandman), married Arabella Wilson (spinster), full age, of Seaton Carew, daughter of William Wilson (husbandman)
  Witnesses: George Vitty, John Proctor
• 23 Apr 1883 Oscar Edward Dix (bachelor, engineer), full age, of the Parish of Holy Trinity, East Hartlepool, son of Joseph Dix (farmer), married Margaret Humpleby (spinster), full age, of Seaton Carew, daughter of John Humpleby (farmer)
  Witnesses: Henry Girling, Martha Humpleby
• 17 Feb 1915 John William Muse (widowed, butcher), age 54, of 55 Queen St., Redcar, son of John Muse (deceased), married Fanny Stewart Lithgo (spinster), age 37, of Linnycot, Seaton Carew, daughter of John Lithgo (pilot)
  Witnesses: Christina Stevenson, William Scott Lithgo