3,775 burials at Hartlepool Old Cemetery, also known as Borough Cemetery, Hart Warren, and Spion Kop), from the cemetery opening in 1856 to the end of 1869.

Because these are municipal cemetery records rather than church burial records, they present many more genealogically useful details. Many of these burial provide the occupation of the deceased, or a parent or spouse and their occupations. Some give information about how or where the person died. Unfortunately, many of the names of parents or spouses were truncated to initials by the cemetery clerk. Here are some sample burials:

• 23 May 1856 Christina MacDougle, of Hartlepool, age: 42, wife of John MacDougle (broker)
• 28 Aug 1856 Thomas Stewart, of Hartlepool, age: 2, son of John (trimmer) & Jane Stewart
• 20 Nov 1859 Jacob Robson, of St Helen’s Place, age: 67, shoemaker
• 8 Jul 1863 Joseph Leeming, of Middlegate, age: 70, town bellman
• 19 Sep 1864 Ann Hebron, of Ratcliffe Terrace, age: 25, single woman
• 8 Jan 1868 Jane Bulmer, of Queen Street, age: 60, wife of Mark Bulmer
• 30 Dec 1869 John Davison Watt, of Sussex Street, age: 2, son of Thomas & M.A. Watt

Besides streets in Hartlepool, abodes mentioned include California (in Hartlepool), Crofton Heugh, Egypt (in Hartlepool), Elwick, Hart Warren, Middleton, Mount Pleasant, Sands, Sedgefield, Stranton, Stripes, Sunniside, Throston, and West Hartlepool.

This cemetery took over burials from the ancient graveyard at St. Hilda’s. The nickname of Spion Kop (“Spy Hill” in Dutch) comes from a battle in the Boer War in South Africa in 1900, and was first applied to the headland on which the cemetery sits, then later to the cemetery itself, as a memorial to the battle. The cemetery  has suffered neglect over the years. It is an important coastal grassland site with a lovely array of wildflowers, and is also a haven for ground nesting birds such as skylarks. You can see some images of the cemetery here:

• http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=29757735
• http://www.teesvalleylocalaccessforum.co.uk/nature-reserves/hartlepool-reserves/111.html

and an article from the Northern Echo newspaper on the cemetery’s history:

• http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/archive/2003/10/02/The+North+East+Archive/7013895.John_North__The_Kop_parade/

8,689 baptisms at South Shields St. Hilda, covering 1763-1797. These are mostly from the Bishop’s Transcript, with short gaps filled in from the parish register and lots of checking against the parish register. Mar 1768-Mar 1770 is entirely from the register. Interestingly, there were several cases where the Bishop’s Transcript gave more information than the original register; some of these are shown below. There were also a few discrepancies, which we have noted.

In general, these baptisms are pretty terse, showing just the date and the names of the parents and child. There are occasional birth dates. From 1792 onward, an increasing percentage of these baptisms have birth dates, and by 1795, most of them do. The occupations of the fathers and the child’s birth order start showing up in Aug 1797.

Samples:

• 4 Jan 1763 Dinah Humphrey, daughter of Michael & Dinah Humphrey
• 29 Nov 1772 Barbara Prissick [Prestwick], daughter of George & Mary Prissick [Prestwick]
• 27 Jan 1782 Margaret Swinbank [Swinburn], daughter of James & Alice Swinbank [Swinburn]
  [Note: Although this clearly says Swinbank, we suspect it should be Swinburn, as James Swinburn married Alice Weatherburn on this date in this church and went on to baptize several more children with her here.]
• 27 Jul 1783 Robert Swan, son of Ann Swan
• 18 Aug 1784 William Bales, son of William Wallis & Elizabeth Bales
  [Note: The original register shows only the mother. The father's name came from the Bishop's Transcript. Sometimes the clerk, when preparing the copy for the Bishop, added information from memory, even though that information was not in the original record.]
• 6 Aug 1785 Jane Raw(?) Robson, daughter of Henry(?) & Jane Robson
  [Note: This entry is not in the original register. In the Bishop's Transcript, it is squeezed in between 2 other entries, and the father's name is unclear. It may be an error, or it may have been omitted from the original register and added to the BT when the copy was being prepared.]
• 16 Aug 1795 John [Dale/Tidy], born 14 Jun 1795, son of John Dale & Margaret Tidy
• 20 Aug 1797 William Lutton, born 6 Jul 1797, 10th child, son of Edward Lutton (mariner) by his wife Mary
• 24 Dec 1797 Michael Turner Crozier, born 8 Apr 1797, 1st child, son of Michael Crozier (painter) by his wife Isabella

Replaced the index to marriage bonds in the years 1760-1764 with full details, so those 1,886 records are now instantly available, including 1 new bond that we missed the first time around and 6 bonds from 1759 whose details didn’t get added in our last update because they were in the 1760 bundle.

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:

Here are the oldest and youngest grooms in this set:

• 27 Jun 1763 Joseph Bewley (gentleman, widower), age 65, of Stanhope obtained a licence to marry Jane Hunter, age 26, of Stanhope, directed to Stanhope.
  Surety: Benezer Powell, gentleman, of Shield Ash, Stanhope
  [Note: married 27 Jun at Stanhope.]
• 9 Jul 1763 George Charter (mariner), age 19, of All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, son of Catherine Charter (consents to the marriage), obtained a licence to marry Margaret Roseby, age 21, of Tynemouth, Northumberland, directed to Tynemouth.
  Surety: John Atkinson, innkeeper, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
  [Note: married 10 Jul at Tynemouth.]

and the oldest and youngest brides:

• 8 Aug 1763 Charles Naylor [Taylor] (gentleman, widower), age 60, of St. Oswald, Durham City obtained a licence to marry Ann Brice (widow), age 60, of Sherburn House, directed to St. Oswald.
  Surety: Peter Blenkinsop, innholder, of Durham City
  [Note: married 11 Aug at St. Oswald - note name discrepancy: Naylor in bond, Taylor in marriage.]
• 27 Aug 1761 Jackson Tyson (exciseman), age 30, of Bishopwearmouth obtained a licence to marry Mary Harbottle, age 15, of Bishopwearmouth, daughter of Thomas Harbottle (consents to the marriage), directed to Bishopwearmouth.
  Surety: Thomas Harbottle, glassmaker, of Bishopwearmouth
  [Note: married 27 Aug at Bishopwearmouth.]

Note that “age 21” generally means “21 and upwards” in these documents.

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.

Durham Records Online is celebrating our millionth burial going online ! With the advent of the Stanley Cemetery collection, our count of burial records (church burials plus cemetery registers) passed the 1,000,000 mark. Here is burial number 1,000,000 (at Stanley Cemetery):

• 31 Jul 1901 John Smith Hope, of 24 Jubilee Terrace, Ox Hill, age: 14

Our burial collection now numbers 1,006,929. I must say, when we launched this site in Nov 2003 with several hundred thousand parish records (covering only Easington district) and several hundred thousand census households, we never thought we’d ever have over 3.6 million records, covering most of the county, to offer our customers. We are grateful to our collaborators for continuing to provide high-quality data, and to our customers for recognizing its value and purchasing it ! If you’ve found our site helpful, be sure to mention it in the genealogy forums you frequent, so we can help more people find their Northeast England ancestors.

8,384 burials at Stanley Cemetery between Stanley and Beamish in Lanchester district. Burials in the Old Section are from the opening of the cemetery in Nov 1891 to May 1977. The New Section opened in May 1914 and burials in the Old Section tailed off rapidly after the 1920s. Our transcription of the New Section runs to 20 May 1932, and we have annotated burials in this section with “buried in the New Section”.

Because these are municipal cemetery records, not church burial records, they present many more genealogically useful details. Just over half of these records give an occupation, either of the deceased, of the father, or of the husband (but, oddly, they do not actually name the father or husband). Some give information about how or where the person died. Here are some samples:

• 25 Nov 1891 William Ramshaw, of Front Street, Stanley, age: 46, stone quarryman
• 26 Oct 1892 Emma Thorne, of South Moor, age: 17, coalminer’s daughter
• 23 Jun 1901 Emily Ann Dunn, of 31 Murray Street, age: 27, married woman
• 24 Mar 1913 Barbara Ann Charlton, of 4 High Street, age: 29, coalminer’s wife
• 16 Apr 1930 William Creswell Ramsey, of 20 Shield Field Green, Newcastle, age: 58, killed on the highway at Kip Hill, Stanley, buried by Coroner’s Order
• 12 Dec 1957 George Miles Handy, of 26 Beaconsfield Street, Stanley, age: 60, van driver
• 3 May 1914 William Proudlock Taylor, of 17 Garden Terrace, Stanley, age: 21, grocer, buried in the New Section
• 12 Mar 1924 John Coe, of 9 Joicey Terrace, Tanfield Lea, age: 80, retired miner, non parishioner, buried in the New Section
• 26 Mar 1932 Esther Rodham, of 98 Wear Road, Stanley, age: 49, bricklayer’s wife, buried in the New Section

Besides street addresses in Stanley, abodes mentioned include Annfield Plain, Beamish, Birtley, Burnhope, Chilton, Consett, Craghead, Cresta, Cross Lanes, Crow’s Nest, East Castle Colliery, Stanley, Edmondsley, Fatfield, Greenland, Havannah, High Stanley, Kip Hill, Nettlesworth, No Place, Oakey’s Cottages, Ox Hill, Park House, Pea Farm, Plawsworth, Quaking Houses, Shield Row, South Moor, Stanley Bank Head, Stanley Hall, Stanley Hill Top, Tanfield Lea, Tantobie, Twizell, West Kyo, West Stanley, and White-le-Head.

At Bethel Chapel on Villiers Street in Bishopwearmouth, a non-conformist Congregationalist (or Independent) chapel:

• 233 baptisms covering 1811 to 1 Aug 1837
• 404 burials from November 1826 to May 1854 (these are all the burials that ever occurred at this site)

Bethel Chapel was built in 1817. The first three baptisms, dated 1811, 1814, and Dec 1817, are all from the same family, so they probably entered them all at once when the chapel opened in 1817.

We were happy to see that mother’s maiden names were recorded in nearly all of these baptisms, as well as the child’s birth date. The child’s order in the family was also provided until the end of 1820.  Here are some samples:

• 26 Mar 1819 Robert Brewis Hobson, of Bishopwearmouth, born 22-Feb 1819, 2nd son of Charles Hobson (shipwright) & Elizabeth Brewis
• 22 Jan 1829 Mary Sherwood Gaine, of East Cross Street, Bishopwearmouth, born 24-Oct 1828, [daughter] of Thomas Gaine (master mariner) & Elizabeth Sherwood
• 30 Jul 1837 Elizabeth Rippon, of Northumberland Street, Bishopwearmouth, born 31-May 1837, [daughter] of Thomas Rippon (butcher) & Leah Curry

Most of these burials show the occupation of the deceased or of the deceased’s husband or father (but without naming the husband or father). Some samples:

• 14 Mar 1828 Joseph Baird, of Sans Street, Bishopwearmouth, age: 58, ship carpenter, died 10 Mar, vault 87
• 30 Jul 1834 Richard William Frater, of Derwent Street, age: 6 years 6 months, excise man’s son, died 27 Jul, vault 57
• 13 Jan 1845 Elizabeth Doxford, of Bedford Street, age: 62, timber merchant’s wife, died 7 Jan, vault 47

Here is an interesting article on Villiers Street from the Sunderland Antiquarians:

• http://www.sunderland-antiquarians.org/members-area/villiers-street/

Here is an interesting article about the surrounding streets, from an 1892 Sunderland history – use your browser to search for “Bethel” to find your place; it occurs several times on the page.

• http://www.garyforeman.co.uk/2011/11/1892-sunderland-history-of-town-port_09.html

The burials at Bethel Chapel were in underground vaults with alley-ways, which were added to the chapel in 1826. The 1827 Gazetteer of Durham says “Bethel Chapel, in Villiers-street, erected in 1817 and enlarged in 1826, is under the Congregational or Independent order of church government, and the Rev. Thomas Stratten is the present minister. A cemetery, constructed upon a novel plan, has just been attached to this chapel; it consists of long narrow vaults, arched over with brick work, all of which are approached through one entrance, so secured as to preclude the possibility of the bodies being feloniously disinterred.”  In 2006, a ground-penetrating radar survey was carried out by Ian Farmer Associates at the site of the Bethel Chapel at 12-14 Villiers Street.  The report summary says, “A complex presence of interconnecting tunnels and vaults were identified and there may have been three areas used for burial. “  Here is an article about locating the crypt in 2010:

• http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/mass_tomb_found_under_chapel_1_1094868

984 marriage bonds filed in 1827 and 18286 in the Diocese of Durham. These are brand new, not previously in our bond index.

In this period, marriage bonds often provide ages, occupations, place of residence, and sometimes a father or mother for the bride and groom 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.

Samples:

• 27 Dec 1827 John Iceton (widower), age 45, of Sedgefield, County Durham obtained a licence to marry Margaret Storow (spinster), age 21 and upwards, of Auckland St.Andrew, County Durham, directed to St.Andrew
• 21 Apr 1828 Joseph Heslop (stonemason, bachelor, minor with consent of his father), age 18, of Barnard Castle, County Durham, son of John Heslop, obtained a licence to marry Alice Kane (spinster, with consent of her father ), age 17, of Darlington, County Durham, daughter of John Kane, directed to Darlington

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 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.