These marriages are from the microfilm of the original parish register and have also been checked against the Bishop’s Transcript, where, for reasons unknown to us, there is, in some cases, additional information. From August 1805 through Nov 1808, the Bishop’s Transcript lists the regiments of grooms who were soldiers - for example, “North Lincolnshire Militia”. This information is not mentioned in the original register, so we have no idea where the cleric who made the transcript for the Bishop of Durham obtained this information, but we thought it was valuable, so we included it with an explanatory note for each of these records. It is possible that the cleric kept a separate list of military marriages and combined the information into the transcript. We also made note of major differences between names recorded in the Bishop’s Transcript versus the original register. For example:

• 20 Jan 1807 Peter France of this parish (West York Militia) married Isabella [Elizabeth] Edger of this parish, by banns
  Witnesses: George Ramsden, Thomas Arlot
  [Note: Groom’s regiment from Bishop’s Transcript, which lists the bride as Elizabeth instead of Isabella.]

It was also interesting to note that the historic transcription made by Herbert Maxwell Wood contained errors and omissions - for example, in 1800 and 1801, he listed many grooms and brides as “of this parish” when in fact the register listed distant parishes for them, but after that, he listed the “outside” parishes correctly.

One final note: the marriages labeled 1809 in the Bishop’s Transcript were actually performed in 1808 per the register. The years 1802-1803 and 1809 through 1812 are missing from the Bishop’s Transcript, so we do not know if any additional information about regiments was available in those years.

Added father’s occupations and abodes to Seaham St Mary the Virgin baptisms 1798-1844, so if you previously purchased a baptism from this set, you might want to recheck it by logging in and clicking My Previous Orders and reviewing any Seaham baptisms. We are updating some of our records that previously omitted this type of information.

Please read the Marriages 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.

The Diocese of Durham covered all of County Durham and parts of Northumberland and North Yorkshire.  Marriage bonds were not issued on a per-district basis, so the marriage bond database will only be searched if you choose All Districts.

These records are from Ron Nubley’s Index, which we are in the process of integrating into our collection, so when you buy one of these, you will immediately get the brief index entry, and the full entry will be transcribed and emailed to you within 3 days, at which point it becomes part of our database and you can view it again at any time.