7,487 burials at Gateshead East Cemetery, covering 1897-1900.

Besides many street addresses in Gateshead, residences mentioned include Bensham, Felling, Felling Gate, High Teams, Low Fell, Mount Pleasant, New Gateshead, Newcastle, Salt Meadows, Teams, and Tyne Main.

Because these are municipal cemetery records, not church burial records, they present many more genealogically useful details. 99% of these records give either an occupation, a parent or husband’s name, or information about how the person died. Some samples:

• 5 Jan 1897 Mary A. McGee, of Connelly’s Lodgings, Church Walk, age: 65, wife of Patrick McGee
• 17 Jul 1897 George Mather, of 47 Walton Street, age: 19, son of Ralph Mather
• 17 May 1899 Maria Lee, of 33 Coburg Street, age: 94, widow of Michael Lee
• 26 Dec 1900 Peter Quinn, of Oakwellgate, age: 70, hawker
• 3 Feb 1898 Richard Heel, of 16 Charles Street, age: 42, cattle drover, died at the Cattle Docks, Newcastle
• 26 May 1898 James Mather, of 17 Watson Street, age: 11, son of James Mather, drowned in a clay pond at Teams

At Ponteland St. Mary the Virgin in the Castle Ward district of Northumberland, across the River Tyne from Ryton and just northwest of Newcastle, we present the following records from the Bishop’s Transcript:

• 1,281 baptisms covering 1813-1844
• 860 burials covering 1813-1844
• 215 marriages covering 1813 to 1 July 1837 when civil registration began

Ponteland is not in the IGI after 1812 and, as far as we know, this is the first time that post-1812 Ponteland baptisms appear indexed and online.

Since Ponteland is only about 10 km north of Ryton, County Durham, many families flowed back and forth between the two areas, following the work. Abodes mentioned, including several in the adjacent parishes of Newburn and Gosforth, were Beacon Hill, Bell Villa, Benridge, Berwick Hill, Birney Hill, Birney Hill Mill, Black Callerton (Newburn parish), Brinkley, Bullock Steads (Gosforth parish), Callerton Fell, Callerton Moor, Click-em-in, Coat Hill, Coldcoats (and East, Middle, South and West Coldcoats), Dalton (Newburn), Darras Hall, Dinnington, Dissington East Houses (Newburn), Dissington, Donkin’s Houses, Edmond Cottage (Newburn), Eland Hall, Gardener’s Houses, Hack Hall, Havannah, High Callerton, High West Houses, Higham Dykes, Holywell Reins (Newburn), Horton Grange, Jobson’s Buildings, Kenton Bank Foot (Gosforth), Kirkley (and Kirkley Bank Head, Cottages, Hall, Lodge, March, Mill, Thorn, Thorn East Gate, and West Farm), Little Callerton, Lough House, Ludwick (Newburn), Make-me-rich, Marsfen Cottage, Mason (and East, North East, and South East Mason), Milbourne (and Milbourne Grange, High House, Low House, Mill, South East Farm, and World’s End), Mill Hill, Mooryspot, Morley Hill, Newgate Street (Newcastle), North Carter Moor and South Carter Moor, Penny Hill (Newburn), Pit Houses, Ponteland, Prestwick (also Prestwick Lodge, Pit Houses, Street House, and Whins), Smallburn, Sunnyside (Gosforth), West Houses, Wolsington or Woolsington, and World’s End.

Sample baptisms:

• 1 Jan 1813 John Tone, of Carr House, son of Lancelot (farmer) & Mary Tone
• 28 Nov 1824 John [Tindle/Wilson], of Killingworth in the parish of Long Benton, illegitimate son of Martin Tindle (corver) & Jane Wilson (single woman)
• 13 Jan 1835 Mary Dorothy Simpson Arkle, of Dinnington, daughter of Edward (mason) & Mary Arkle
• 17 Nov 1844 Helen Potts, of Ponteland, daughter of James (teacher) & Margaret Potts

There were 5 people whose informants claimed the deceased was 100 or older at death. Sample burials:

• 16 Oct 1822 Joseph Mackey, of Percy Street in the chapelry of St Andrew in Newcastle, age: 105
• 23 Jan 1827 Barbara Oliver, of Ponteland, age: 104
• 5 Jul 1826 William Guy, of Eachwick in the parish of Newburn, age: 100
• 22 Jun 1813 Thomas Snowball, of Low Callerton, age: 37
• 7 Nov 1843 Isabella Armitage, of Woolsington in the parish of Dinnington, age: 45

Sample marriages:

• 11 Feb 1813 Proctor Shotton, of this parish married Ann Hart, of this parish, by licence
  Witnesses: George Humble, Edward Dodd
• 2 Dec 1824 Robert Young, of the parish of Bishopwearmouth married Dorothy Davison, of this parish, by licence
  Witnesses: Joseph Davison, Forster Anderson
• 4 Sep 1836 George Harbottle, of the parish of Hebron married Jane Hunter, of this parish, by banns
  Witnesses: John Harbottle, Thomas Hunter, Elizabeth Hunter, Ann Harbottle

272 baptisms at Middleton St. George (St. George) in Darlington district covering 1842 to May 1871. After that, all baptisms for this area were performed at Middleton St. George St. Lawrence. Abodes mentioned include Almora Lodge, Egypt (farm), Fighting Cocks, Forster House, Gingerbread House, Goosepool, Killinghall, Low Middleton, Middleton Iron Works, Middleton One-Row, Middleton St. George, Mill House, Oak Tree, Trafford Hill, and West Hartburn.

Sample baptisms:

• 20 Jul 1845 Jane Calvert, of Fighting Cocks Mill, daughter of Thomas (miller) & Ann Calvert
• 6 Jul 1870 Alice Ann Gale, of Oak Tree, child of Francis (brewer’s man) & Eliza Gale

1,998 marriages at Hartlepool Holy Trinity (a chapelry of Hart St. Mary Magdalene, located in Throston) from the beginning of the first register in June 1852 to the end of May 1907. These are fully-detailed civil-registration-era marriages. Residences mentioned include Castle Eden, Hartlepool, Middleton, Stockton, Stranton, Sunderland, Throston, West Hartlepool, and Wingate.

Samples:

• 29 May 1853 James Philpots (bachelor, mariner), age 27, of Hartlepool, son of John Philpots (farmer), married Sarah Lennard (spinster), age 24, of Hartlepool, daughter of Thomas Lennard (shoemaker), by banns; groom & bride both signed their names.
  Witnesses: William Hey, Elizabeth Lennard
• 9 Dec 1862 Thomas Fawcett (bachelor, gentleman), age 67, of Hartlepool, late of High Ravenswater, Co. York, son of William Fawcett (gentleman), married Elizabeth Spinks (spinster), age 30, of Hartlepool, daughter of James Spinks (grocer), by licence; groom & bride both signed their names.
  Witnesses: William Asquith, Ellenor Scaife
• 23 Aug 1897 Jabez Longmore (widowed, blacksmith), age 59, of 22 Lily St., son of Joseph Longmore (moulder, deceased), married Jane Marsden (widow), age 49, of 7 Powlet St., daughter of Thomas Bamber (sailor, deceased), by licence
  Witnesses: Thomas Bamber, Elizabeth Bamber, T. Bamber

5,785 baptisms at South Shields St. Hilda’s covering 1798-1812. These are from the Bishop’s Transcript with extensive checking against the parish register. Of course, this is the “golden period” in which the mother’s maiden surname and both parents’ birthplaces are recorded. We kind of got carried away being helpful and spent a lot of time noting anomalies and similarities in this batch, in an attempt to help you link up your ancestors to each other. For example, we added lots of notes like these:

• 8 Apr 1798 Isabella Heppell, born 7 Apr 1797, 2nd child of William Heppell (shipwright, native of South Shields) by his wife Isabella Newton (native of Ryton)
  [Note: Baptized same day as a child of another Heppell-Newton couple - did brothers marry sisters and they baptized their children together?]
• 30 May 1802 Isabella Pinkney, born 30 Oct 1801, 1st daughter of John Pinkney (master mariner, native of Robin Hoods Bay) by his wife Isabella Estill (native of the same place)
  [Note: This is interesting because there are numerous baptisms here in this period to WILLIAM Pinkney (mariner of Robin Hood's Bay) and ALICE Estill from the same place, including a child born 2 weeks before this one. Did brothers marry sisters and move together?]
• 16 Jun 1805 Isabella North, born 9 Sep 1804, 1st daughter of Thomas North (shipwright, native of Stockton) by his wife Ann Anderson (native of Sedgehill [Seghill], Northumberland)
  [Note: Baptized the same day as a child of Margaret Anderson, also native of Sedgehill/Seghill; might the mothers be sisters, baptizing their children together?]
• 31 Dec 1812 Sarah Unthank, born 7 May, 1st daughter of Robert [John] Unthank (mariner, native of Whitby, Yorkshire) by his wife Jane Ransom (native of Whitby)
  [Note: John christened the same day to the same parents was supposedly born 7 Sep 1812; one of these birth dates must be wrong. Also, Jane Ransom married JOHN Unthank in 1803 and there are earlier baptisms to John & Jane, so we think Robert is a clerical error.]

Why might it be useful to identify the brothers or sisters of your ancestors having children in this period ? Lots of reasons ! For starters, you might get lucky and find the baptism of  a child of a sibling that names the grandfather – in other words, maybe Ann Anderson in the last example above doesn’t have any baptisms for her children that name her father, but maybe her potential sister Margaret does have a child baptized, possibly elsewhere, in which Margaret is identified as “daughter of John Anderson of Seghill”. The baptism of the child of a sibling can lead you to the parent of both mothers (or fathers, but that is less common).

Another reason to identify siblings is that one of them may have a baptism record where the other one does not. For example, perhaps your ancestor is Isabella Estill in the middle example above, and you have been unable to locate her baptism and therefore her parents. If you think Alice is her sister, maybe you can locate Alice’s baptism and use that to build your case for Isabella’s parentage. It may be just circumstantial evidence, or it may lead to proof of Isabella’s parentage.

Sometimes the baptism of a sibling’s child may give you a slightly different birthplace for that sibling, which might help you find baptism of your ancestor. For example, let’s say there are 2 siblings, John Quince and Sarah Quince. In the baptisms of John Quince’s children, he is described as “native of Cumberland”, but in the baptisms of Sarah Quince’s children, she is described as “native of Alston, Cumberland”. If you are fairly certain John and Sarah are siblings, it is fairly likely that John was also born at Alston, and instead of having to search all of Cumberland for his baptism, you would start your search in Alston and branch out from there.

Along the same lines, it is important to look at the baptisms of your ancestor’s siblings in this period, not just the baptism of your ancestor, because the sibling’s baptisms may give you a more precise birthplace for either the children or the parents, or the birthplaces may vary dramatically, giving you other avenues to explore. For example, in 5 baptisms to John Green & Ann Miller at South Shields between 1798 and 1812, he is described as being from, in order, Whitby, this place, Whitby, then Robin Hoods Bay twice. His wife is consistently “of this place”. Since Robin Hood’s Bay is the most precise, it is probably the most accurate, and it is near Whitby. If you only looked at the 2nd baptism, which said the father was “native of this place”, you would have been sorely misled.  Note how it is also common for several baptisms to a couple to give consistent birthplaces that are elsewhere, then suddenly one baptism shows “native of this place” for the father or mother or both. In these cases where the birthplace seems to be defaulted to “this place” when it has been something radically different in several other baptisms, we don’t know if the clerk forgot to ask the parents about their birthplaces and  just guessed “native of this place”, or did one parent give the information in all the other baptisms and the other tired, harried parent was handling the baptism recording this time and couldn’t remember his or her spouse’s birthplace?

In summary, to cast a wider net and increase your chances of tracing your ancestors, try the following:

• look at the baptisms of all of your ancestor’s siblings that occur in the 1798-1812 period
• look at the baptisms of all of your ancestor’s children that occur in the 1798-1812 period
• look at the baptisms of your ancestor’s siblings’ children (his or her nieces and nephews) that occur in the 1798-1812 period
• more data is better !

1,324 burials at Brancepeth St. Brandon in Durham district covering 1739-1780, plus one we missed in 1731.

Residences mentioned include Auckland St. Andrew, Biggin, Billy Hall, Billy Row, Bishop Auckland, Boggle Hole, Brancepeth, Brandon, Burn House, Burnigill, Butchers Race, Coalpit House, Cockshaw or Cockshot House, Coldstreams, Crook, Crossgate, Dicken House, Durham, East Brandon, East Parks, Goodwellfield, Hare Holme, Helmington Row, Heslot House, High Close, High Page Bank, High Waterhouses, High Wooley, Hill House, Hole in the Wall or Holywell, Humble Sledge, Ivesley, Jobs Hill, Langley & Langley Mill, Lingey Close House, Little Burn, Little White, Low Barns, Low Field, Low Waterhouses, Low Wooley, Morley, Mown Meadows, Nafferton, New Stables, Newcastle, Newfield, Oakenshaw, Oxpasture House, Page Bank, Pitt House,  Primrose Side, Pringle House, Quarry Hill, Reed Barn, Scouts House, Scripton, Sedgefield, Sleetburn House & Mill, Stand Alone, Stanley, Steels House, Stob House, Stockley, Sunderland, Sunderland Bridge, The Lodge, The Middles, The Shades, Tudhoe, Unthank, Waterhouses, Weather Hill, West Brandon, West Isle, West Parks, Wheat Bottom, White Lee, Willington, Willington Burn, and Yorks House.

Samples:

• 2 Jan 1739 Christopher Ovington, of Helmington Row, died 31 Dec
• 4 Jan 1766 Jane Proud, of Wheat Bottom, wife of William Proud
• 3 Feb 1780 Mary Gibbon, of Durham, daughter of Anthony Gibbon

Most burials in this set didn’t show ages, but this one did:

• 16 Jan 1750 Elizabeth Heavyside, of Tudhoe, age: 111

and – fair warning, don’t read on if you’re squeamish – this is possibly the most gruesome burial I have come across yet:

• 23 Apr 1740 Michael Robinson, late schoolmaster at Cornsey, by coroner’s order. Burial of his scattered bones, which were found on Billy Hill, Brancepeth. He’d been lost since last Martinmas [11 Nov 1739]. Found on 21 Apr 1740 being eaten by a Mastiff dog, with only his skull, both legs & clothes left.

2,649 burials and 901 marriages at Whitburn St. Mary in South Shields district covering 1579-1797.

Residences mentioned besides Whitburn include Cleadon, Fulwell, Hartlepool, Monkwearmouth, North Shields, South Shields, and Sunderland.

Sample marriages – witnesses start appearing in June 1754:

• 24 Nov 1579 William Sharpentyne married Christian Foster
• 22 May 1616 Mr. John Heath, of Ramesyde married Isabell Becwith (widow)
• 23 Mar 1711 Mr. William Sowersby married Mrs. Eleanor Cramlington, both of Newcastle, were married here
• 13 Jul 1760 Edward Cuthbert, of the parish of Kelloe, Co. Durham married Mary Chambers, of this parish, by licence
  Witnesses: William Chambers, Joseph Cuthbert
• 3 Jul 1796 Wilkinson Dodds (bachelor), of the Chapelry of Heworth married Hannah Ingo (spinster), of this parish, by licence
  Witnesses: James Wright, William Ingo

Sample burials:

• 10 May 1579 Issabell Donatson
• 3 Oct 1597 Robert Metforthe, with his servant John Maham was buried at the Greene howes
• 26 Feb 1657 Mattheyes Readhead, son of Anthony Readhead
• 19 Nov 1700 Jane Hedley, wife of George Hedley, found at the Sea side
• 11 Jun 1759 Barbara Kay, wife of George Kay (deceased)
• 11 Jun 1795 Joseph Brotherside, a soldier in the 84th Regt. of Foot

15 soldiers from the 84th Regiment of Foot were buried at Whitburn between May12th and June 27th in 1795. They were mostly buried on different days, with a  few instances of two burials in one day, so we assume they were not the victims of a mass disaster such as a shipwreck, but we do suspect there may have been some outbreak of contagious disease that swept through the camp. This regiment was sent to the Cape of Good Hope the following year, and from there to India a few years later. A 1795 newspaper says “In the beginning of July, 1795, encampments were formed at the under-mentioned places on the coasts of Durham and Northumberland, which were composed of the following regiments…Whitburn— 8th regiment of foot, Durham militia, and Durham fencibles, by General Osburne…Cowpen—7th light dragoons, 16th ditto, 55th regiment of foot, 84th ditto, and the Leicestershire militia, by General Balfour. The camps broke up in October.” Apparently the 84th Regiment was also at Whitburn and at Monkwearmouth at the same time, as the Monkwearmouth burial register also shows several deaths from the 84th and other regiments in May-June 1795.

At Penshaw All Saints in Houghton-le-Spring district:

• 307 baptisms from the beginning of this church’s register in March 1754 to mid-1762 where our previous transcriptions began.
• In the baptisms for mid-1762 to early 1764, which we already had online, we discovered that the names of the mothers, which were omitted in the Bishop’s Transcript, were available in the parish register, so we updated those baptisms with the missing mothers. We also added 5 baptisms that were missing from our original set.
• 170 burials from the start of the register in Sep 1756 to mid-1762 where our previous transcriptions began
• 134 marriages from the start of the register in June 1754 to mid-1763 where our previous transcriptions began. We also added the missing witnesses to the marriages in 1763-1764.

Until 1838, Penshaw was a chapelry in the parish of Houghton-le-Spring. We now have continuous baptisms and burials at Penshaw from the beginning of the registers in 1754 to the end of 1830 plus marriages to mid-1837.

Penshaw is not covered by the IGI, so this collection should be quite useful to researchers with ancestors in this area. Residences mentioned in these records besides Penshaw include Biddick, Boag’s Gate, Carr Hill, Coxgreen, Guy’s Mill, Herrington Mill, Herrington Waterside and Woodside, Low Netherton, Offerton, Offerton Haugh and Offerton Waterside, Penshaw Staiths, Wapping, West Herrington, and Woodhouse.

Sample baptisms – mothers were not named until Aug 1758, except for illegitimate children:

• 31 Mar 1754 Isabel Ranson, of Penshaw, daughter of Joseph Ranson
• 9 Jun 1754 Ruth Hope, of Biddick, base born daughter of Jane Hope
• 2 May 1762 Mabel Richardson, of Banwell House near Penshaw, daughter of Cuthbert & Margaret Richardson

Sample burials:

• 25 Nov 1756 Margaret Hood, of Offerton, daughter of John Hood
• 4 Mar 1760 Eleanor Rutter, of Biddick, wife of Michael Rutter
• 26 May 1762 Mary Shipley, of Biddick, daughter of Martin Shipley

Sample marriages:

• 28 Feb 1756 Francis Mascall (esquire), of Eppleton in the parish of Houghton-le-Spring married Elizabeth Lambton (spinster), of Biddick in this chapelry, by licence
  Witnesses: Charles Lambton, Robert Ord, Robert Hope
• 21 May 1764 William Galley, of the parish of Washington married Anne Blackett, of this chapelry, by banns
  Witnesses: William Green, Robert Bailey

We didn’t get as much data uploaded to the site in October as I’d wanted to, although we did manage nearly 9,500 new records. My excuse is Halloween. I don’t know if Halloween is a big deal in Great Britain, but here in the U.S., or maybe just in Ashland, Oregon, it’s a very big deal. The schools had a 5-day weekend, ostensibly for parent-teacher conferences, but really, I think, to allow us to stretch out the costumed revelry. We went to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins, carved jack o’ lanterns from them, decorated the outside of the house with fake spiderwebs and giant spiders to thrill the trick-or-treaters, visited a haunted house, attended costume parties, ran a short race in full costume, and strolled in the (costumed, of course) Halloween parade. Here is our caveman family winning 2nd prize in the costume contest just before the race:

Caveman Family

1,346 marriages at Auckland St. Andrew’s covering 1765-1812. Besides Auckland St. Andrew, residences mentioned for the brides and grooms include Aycliff, Barnard Castle, Bishop Middleham, Bishopwearmouth, Brancepeth, Chester-le-Street, Cockfield, Croft, Croxdale, Darlington, Denton, Durham city, Easington, Escomb, Gainford, Hamsterley, Haughton-le-Skerne, Heighington, Houghton-le-Spring, Kelloe, Lanchester, Merrington, Newcastle, Sedgefield, St. Helen Auckland, Staindrop, Stockton, Sunderland, Tanfield, Whitworth, Witton-le-Wear, and Wolsingham.

The LDS IGI (or FamilySearch.org) site has long had Auckland St. Andrew’s marriages, but their collection is strangely incomplete. Out of 1,346 marriages, we found 246 in the register that were not in the IGI (nor in any other indexed collection on the FamilySearch site). The missing ones are randomly sprinkled throughout the collection – it’s not like they missed indexing a year or two, they just somehow missed several per year, not altogether in the same month or anything logical. We’re baffled – but thrilled to be able to offer these marriages online !

Samples:

• 6 May 1765 Timothy Pickering, of the parish of Brancepeth married Alice Crow, of this parish, by banns
  Witnesses: Thomas Crow, William Wascoe
• 23 Jan 1792 Thomas Wild, of this parish married Sarah Hepple, of the parish of Witton le Wear, by licence
  Witnesses: Francis Johnson, John Wilkinson

Here is a fascinating story:

• 23 Nov 1807 Charles Thompson, of this parish married Maria Adamson of the parish of St. Helen Auckland, by banns – This marriage is void having been illegally procured. The woman to whom Charles Thompson was married was not Maria Adamson, with whom he had been duly published both in this Church & in the Chapel of St.Helen, Auckland. The said Charles Thompson after the publication of Banns quarrelled with Maria Adamson & prevailed upon this person to be married in the name of Maria Adamson. The woman’s name is Ann Naisbitt – John Bacon, Minister March 10th 1808.
  Witnesses: Francis Johnson, Mary Wilkinson

There are later baptisms (starting in Nov 1808) to Charles Thompson & his wife Maria nee Adamson, so did he marry her eventually? Not at Auckland St. Andrew or St. Helen ! Did Ann Naisbitt stay married to him and continue using the name Maria Adamson ? I wish we could know the details of this story !