2,577 baptisms and 1,730 burials at Staindrop St. Mary the Virgin in Teesdale district, covering 1765-1812, from the Bishop’s Transcript with some missing bits filled in from the parish register. Residences mentioned include Alwent, Blakeley, Cleatlam, Darlington, Dent Gate, Farmhouse, Gawens House, Gibsneese, Hilton, Hullam House, Hungerknowle, Ingleton, Keverstone, Langleydale, Leeside, Lucy-cross, Moorside, Motherly House, Mulberry, New Mulberry, New Raby, Parks, Raby, Raby Castle, Raby Folly & Parks, Scaifhouse, Shotton, Snotterton, Staindrop, Staindrop Moor, Streatlam, Wackerfield, and Wardhouse.

When the Barrington period started in 1798, the clerk was a little slow to start recording parents’ nativities.  For January through mid-October 1798, about half of the parents have nativities and the father’s occupation. After that, it gets better, and we get some mother’s fathers, but those are not consistently recorded until 1805. Sample baptisms:

• 8 Jan 1765 Margaret Middleton, of Ingleton, daughter of John & Dorothy Middleton
• 13 Feb 1776 Thomas Eels, of Farmhouse, son of Christopher & Mary Eels
• 25 Sep 1785 John Allen, of Langlydale, son (natural child) of Mary Allen, P
  [Note: "P" may mean "private baptism", but it more likely means that the family was poor. See our Help Topic on this for more details.]
• 30 Dec 1796 John & Mary Wheatley, of Blakely, twins of Thomas & Ann Wheatley
• 1 Jan 1798 Ann Bowser, of Ingleton, born 3 Sep 1797, 2nd daughter of Thomas Bowser (butcher) by his wife Margaret Simpson
• 1 Mar 1799 Ann Parnaby, of Shotton, born 26 Feb, child of Christopher Parnaby (farmer) by his wife Ann Hardy (native of Copley in the parish of Hamsterley)
• 18 Dec 1805 William Speight Ruddock, of Staindrop, born 10 Dec, 1st child of Henry Ruddock (butcher, native of this place) by his wife Mary Speight (daughter of William Speight, native of Trinity Parish, York)
• 28 Apr 1811 Ruth Tennick, born 27 Feb 1798, late a Quaker, 1st child of John Tennick (labourer of Staindrop) by his wife Elizabeth Boyns (daughter of Joseph Boyns, of Raby)

Sample burials:

• 21 Jan 1765 Ann Applegarth, of Staindrop, wife of Robert Applegarth
• 20 Sep 1785 Elizabeth Pinkney, of Ingleton, daughter of Jacob & Margaret Pinkney, P [=poor]
• 29 Apr 1796 Ann Pearson, of Staindrop, widow of George Pearson (parish clerk deceased)
• 8 Jan 1798 Jonathan Mathers, age: 27, servant, a batchelor, late of Wakefield, Yorkshire, died 5 Jan, rheumatic fever
• 15 May 1801 Mary Rayson, of Scafe House, age: 18 days, died 14 May, infant daughter of the late Henry Rayson (yeoman) by his wife Jane Helmer
• 20 Feb 1808 Alice Sayer late Bainbridge, of Raby Folly, age: 49, died 18 Feb, wife of James Sayer (carpenter), consumption

We have added a new category of records – Vestry Minutes. So far, we have only a small set of 58 vestry minutes from Lanchester All Saints parish, covering Jan 1827 to the end of July 1828.

The vestry is the room in a church where the vestments and parish records are kept. The word was also used for a gathering of parish representatives who met in the vestry to carry out parish business. The vestry formed the fundamental unit of decision making for each parish, and acted as a miniature legislature for parochial government. Vestry minutes (the record of each meeting of the vestry) record, among other church business, the outlay of parish funds to cover the expenses of poor residents, such as burials or aid to impoverished children, which may be useful to your ancestral search. Some minutes simply record who was present at the meeting or who got money for what, and some have more useful details like a woman’s maiden surname or relationships.

Some minutes are terse, but can serve to establish someone’s presence in the parish at a specific time:

• 15 June 1827 Thomas Seymour – in the chair
• 7 Mar 1828 Joseph George Richmond – in the chair

Some minutes have more useful details:

• 18 May 1827 John Daglish – shall be at the expense of Thomas Ramshaw’s wife’s funeral when it may happen
• 16 May 1828 Jane Joice – late McLeod be allowed 1/- p.w. for her child
• 18 May 1827 George Greenwell – be allowed his expenses of removing John Hudson’s widow from Lanchester Lodge to South Shields or Westoe

We hope to add more to this collection soon now that we have rewritten our system code to accommodate the slightly different format demanded by these records (and if any of you were having trouble searching our site on Dec 15th or early on Dec 16th, that’s why; we temporarily broke some of the searches, but we believe they have been fixed now).

You can limit your search to Vestry Minutes by selecting that record category from the Search In: drop-down list on the search page.

Our first transcription of the 1911 census covers the colliery villages of Old Seaham and New Seaham, with 6,349 residents. The 1911 census was the first to use a single sheet per household and also the first to be filled in by the actual head of household rather than the enumerator.  This census was supposed to cover all people who slept in the house on the night of April 1st, 1911. It asked some interesting questions of married persons about the duration of the current marriage,  the number of children born to this marriage, and how many of those children were living. Naturally these questions caused some confusion. Some people who were on their 2nd or 3rd marriage reported all of their children by all marriages, so you may find instances of “married 2 years, 17 children born, 12 living, 5 dead”. Sometimes this information was crossed out when they realized the children reported were not from the current marriage, but luckily we can still read most of the cross-outs. Some people listed all of their children whether they were living or dead; sometimes the dead children were crossed out or had a “1″ marked in the Dead column. Some people listed their children who had married and were enumerated elsewhere; sometimes those children were crossed out, but not always, so you may find an ancestor twice in this census. Most widowed persons did not fill out the information about the duration of the current marriage or how many children they had, but some did.

Here is an example of children listed as dead – although their ages are not given, they are probably listed in their birth order within the family, although they seem to have listed all the sons before moving on to the daughters:

30 Cornish Street, New Seaham
Thomas Hutchinson, head, married, 53, coalminer, hewer, born Bowden Close, County Durham, married 23 years, 8 children born, 3 living, 5 dead
Hannah Hutchinson, wife, married, 51, born Calstock, Cornwall
Robert Hutchinson, son, dead
Thomas Hutchinson, son, 21, coalminer, pony putter, born New Seaham, County Durham
John Robert Hutchinson, son, 20, coalminer, pony putter, born New Seaham, County Durham
James Henry Hutchinson, son, 18, coalminer, staple lad, born New Seaham, County Durham
Hugh Hutchinson, son, dead
Moses Hutchinson, son, dead
Herbert William Hutchinson, son, dead
Herbert Hutchinson, son, dead
Pheobe Hutchinson, daughter, 26, born New Seaham, County Durham
Matthew Wilson, son-in-law, married, 28, coalminer, hewer, born Morton, County Durham
Isabella Wilson, daughter, married, 28, born New Seaham, County Durham
Annie Wilson, granddaughter, 2 days, born New Seaham, County Durham
John Cooper, lodger, widowed, 85, retired coalminer, born Newcastle, Northumberland

Based on these dead children’s ages in the 1901 census, they died before procreating, so you would not have to bother tracking any living descendants for them.

Here is an example showing 2 children listed who may also be enumerated elsewhere:

4 Cornish Street, New Seaham
William Watt, head, married, 45, coalminer, hewer at Seaham Colliery, born Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, married 24 years, 14 children born, 11 living, 3 dead
Mary Jane Watt, wife, married, 42, coalminer, putter at Seaham Colliery, born New Seaham, County Durham [Note: Occupation is probably written on the wrong line and applies to son George.]
Margaret A. Watt, daughter, 23, born New Seaham, County Durham [Note: This entry is crossed out. She may be enumerated with her employer's family.]
George W. Watt, son, 21, born New Seaham, County Durham
Annie Watt, daughter, 18, domestic servant, born Fence Houses, County Durham [Note: This entry is crossed out. She may be enumerated with her employer's family.]
Lily Watt, daughter, 16, born New Seaham, County Durham
John Watt, son, 12, scholar, born New Seaham, County Durham
Joseph Watt, son, 12, scholar, born New Seaham, County Durham
James Watt, son, 10, scholar, born New Seaham, County Durham
Mary Watt, daughter, 8, born New Seaham, County Durham
Elizabeth Watt, daughter, 8, born New Seaham, County Durham
Irene Watt, daughter, 7, born New Seaham, County Durham
Jane Ellen Watt, daughter, 3, born New Seaham, County Durham
Thomas Ramsgate(?) [Ramsdale(?)], lodger, 28, coalminer, stoneman, born South Shields, County Durham [Note: Surname is written over; hard to read.]

In this case, daughter Margaret Adamson Watt was about to be married in a couple of weeks and is enumerated with her Adamson grandparents in New Seaham. By the way, this is the family shown in the lower left corner of the home page of this site. The photograph was taken circa 1901 and features the mother & father plus Margaret Adamson W (13), George William (11), Annie (8), Lily (age 6, in the middle), twins Joseph and John (on the floor, age 1), and the baby James Adamson Watt. Lily is the grandmother of George Turns, a partner in this site.

Some other sites that host the 1911 census do not bother indexing the people who are crossed out, but in some cases those crossed-out names prove the parentage of children who are listed separately elsewhere, so they can be immensely valuable and therefore we index them.

It is estimated that several thousand women suffragettes protested their lack of voting rights by not filling out their 1911 census forms. The London Times reported this:

The Guardian reported:

Hundreds of young men and women gathered in large open-air meetings that were almost parties and stayed there all night so they could say they had not slept at home on the night of the census. We do not know if any such public protests occurred in County Durham.

Replaced the index to marriage bonds in the years 1755-1759 with full details, so those 1,481 records are now instantly available, including 1 new bond 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:

• 6 Aug 1756 John Carryer (shipwright, widower), age 60, of All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne obtained a licence to marry Dorothy Corney (widow), age 50, of All Saints, directed to All Saints
  Surety: Peter Wilson, bricklayer, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
  [Note: married 7 Aug at All Saints]
• 11 May 1758 Ralph Brockett (surgeon, widower), age 50, of St.Nicholas, Durham City obtained a licence to marry Agnes Simpson, age 30, of St.Nicholas, directed to St.Nicholas
  Surety: Braems Wheler, gentleman, of Durham City
  [Note: married 13 May at St.Nicholas]
• 30 Mar 1757 George Cowling (yeoman), age 18, of Aycliffe, son of Simon Cowling (consents to the marriage), obtained a licence to marry Mary Elcoat (widow), age 30, of Aycliffe, directed to Aycliffe
  Surety: Simon Cowling, yeoman, of Aycliffe

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.

At Boldon St. Nicholas in South Shields district:

• 816 baptisms covering 1813-1846
• 683 burials covering 1813-1851

Boldon was an ancient parish of Durham that was sandwiched into a fairly small area, surrounded by Heworth, Jarrow, South Shields, Whitburn, Monkwearmouth, and Washington. Residences mentioned include Belle Vue, Biddick, Bogmires, Boldon (and Boldon Depot, Fell, Fell Gate, Rectory, Tile Sheds, West House, and West Pastures), Brockley Whins, Coldsides, Down Hill, East Boldon, Fatherless Field, Follingsby, Harton, Hedworth, Hylton, Hylton Bridge, Hylton West Moor, Laverick Hall, Make-me-rich, Monkwearmouth, Mount Pleasant, Newcastle, Newton Garths, North Pastures, Pike’s Hole, Scotch House or Scott’s House, Simonside, South Shields, Stay the Voyage, Strother House, West Boldon, and White Mare Pool, with the majority of people coming from East and West Boldon.

Sample baptisms:

• 9 May 1813 Philip Ralph Robinson, of East Boldon, son of James (gentleman) & Arabella Robinson
• 6 Jan 1822 Alice Merriman, of West Boldon, daughter of John (blacksmith & publican) & Jane Merriman
• 21 Dec 1834 Margaret Catharine Humphrey, of East Boldon, daughter of William (hind to Mr. Browell) & Eleanor Humphrey
• 19 Jul 1846 James [Leonard/Batey], of West Boldon, born 19-Jul, child of James Batey (platelayer) & Margaret Leonard (single woman)

Sample burials – a few of the burials give a parent or spouse’s name, but most conform to the post-1812 format and do not provide those useful details:

• 17 Sep 1815 John Wagget, of East Boldon, age: 7 months, son of Francis & Ann Wagget
• 9 Apr 1825 Ralph Noble, of East Boldon, age: 89
• 22 Dec 1836 Sarah Lankey James, of Monkwearmouth, age: 77
• 6 Aug 1851 George Woodhouse, of [blank], age: 22, buried without the Service. He laid violent hands on himself; the body was found at Hylton Dean in Southwick Parish.

In case you missed our last Boldon update (March 2011), here is an interesting site on the history of Boldon, with photographs:

• http://www.boldonhistory.co.uk/