Northfiche: Parish Register Transcripts

PARISH REGISTER TRANSCRIPTS

Northfiche can supply microfiche copies of transcripts of the registers of about 150 parishes in Northumberland and County Durham, and the Alston area in Cumberland.

There are detailed lists for Durham and Cumberland, and for Northumberland (including Newcastle).

General
Parish Registers were first introduced in England and Wales in 1534 and continue to be compiled to this day. If you are reading this, you probably know all about them, and know how valuable they are in uncovering your family tree. If you do not know about them, here is a useful history

Almost all registers, except the recent ones still in everyday use, are deposited and cared for in County Record Offices – at Northumberland Record Office and Durham County Record Office , for example. If you cannot get there easily to view them, almost certainly on microfilm, what can you do ?

You have probably looked at the International Genealogical Index compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the “Mormons”), freely available at Family History Centres throughout the world, or at many libraries and institutions. You will know it is an immense and valuable resource, but its weaknesses are well documented; for example, it does not include burials. You will need to widen your research and for periods before 1st July 1837 (when Civil Registration in England and Wales began), you should use Parish Registers, or other Registers from various Nonconformist places of worship. Northfiche can help, with its range of fiche of transcripts – over 350 sets.

What is a Parish Register Transcript?
It is a copy of a Parish Register, or of part(s) of it, prepared by an individual or a group of people, who have copied details from the original Register. Registers cover Baptisms (not Births), Marriages and Burials (not Deaths). There are also some registers of Banns of Marriage in some parishes.

Is there anything unusual about Northumberland and Durham registers?
Yes, you will find that the registers for 1798 to 1812 are particularly helpful in your researches. The Bishop of Durham, Shute Barrington, gave detailed orders to the parishes in his Diocese (ie County Durham, most of Northumberland, and Alston in Cumberland)) to include a lot of extra information. Baptism entries, in particular, contain extra details which help immensely. Here for example is a baptism entry from the baptism register of the Durham parish of Pittington in 1805:-

William Crofton born 10 Sept baptised 15 Sept, 3rd child, 2nd boy, son of John Crofton of Hallgarth Pittington, taylor & Anne his wife daughter of Joseph Turner of Ouseburn, near Newcastle, engine wright.

We learn that William is the third child and the second boy, possibly allowing a search to be made for the earlier children,and we learn the maiden name of the mother and her father’s name, residence and occupation. This is invaluable information in trying to trace “further back”. The precise detail sometimes varies – the Netherwitton register,in Northumberland, for example, does not name the wife’s father but does give the native place of the wife as well as her maiden name, and this may well be sufficient to enable her to be traced.

Have Registers for every Parish been transcribed?
No, not by any means. There are many untranscribed registers in most areas, and Northumberland and Durham is no exception. Although work is ongoing, and huge advances have been made in recent years, it is likely to be a very long time before every register to a certain date is transcribed.

If a transcript for a Northumberland or Durham parish exists, where can I see it?
The County Record Offices, and many libraries, have collections of transcripts. So do organisations like Northumberland & Durham Family History Society, and Cleveland Family History Society. In addition, Newcastle City Library has a particularly fine collection and Northfiche can supply microfiche copies of many transcripts from this collection.

Tell me more about Newcastle Library’s collection
The library has an impressive amount of genealogical material. A feature of this is its large collection of transcripts for Northumberland and County Durham, and for the Alston area of Cumberland, which was part of the ecclesiastical Diocese of Durham.

A particular feature is the Wood collection. A keen antiquarian and genealogist, Herbert Maxwell Wood (1869-1929) was in practice as an accountant in Sunderland until retirement in 1922. In 1898, he founded the Durham & Northumberland Parish Register Society (DNPRS) and was its Secretary and Treasurer until it wound up in 1928. It had copied,indexed, printed and published , in part or in whole, the registers of over 30 parishes. They are available on microfiche from Northfiche. Wood’s transcripts of over 100 other parishes remain unpublished, and are in large bound volumes at Newcastle City Library, where they are well known and very well used by local genealogists. They are almost entirely in manuscript form, in a blue ink, now beginning to fade. Wood bequeathed over 450 volumes to the Library, most of which are available on microfiche from Northfiche.

Did Wood do all the work and is it indexed?
No, in both cases. Some parishes were transcribed by others and sometimes in typescript. A few parishes (eg Gainford in south Durham and Elsdon in Northumberland) ended up as printed volumes published by or on behalf of other people or organisations.

The DNPRS and other printed volumes are indexed. Wood’s manuscript work is usually not indexed, but there are exceptions, sometimes where another person has added an index.

However, there are separate Marriage Indexes for about 50 parishes, compiled in the 1970’s and 1980’s by the late Bill Rounce. These are in manuscript, in alphabetical order by male name, and cover to 1837. If such an index exists, it is shown in the lists under the appropriate parish.

What periods are covered?
Mainly from the earliest surviving register for a particular parish, up to 1812, although a few, such as Newcastle All Saints, Lanchester in County Durham, and Corsenside in Northumberland, go to later dates. However, there are also instances where only certain periods of complete register have been transcribed –for instance the Auckland St Andrew transcript covers 1653 to 1777 only. The lists clearly show what periods are available on fiche.

Why do most transcripts stop at 1812?
Until 1812 there was generally no standard form, but Roses Act introduced a standardised layout, and Wood and company seem to have used that date as a convenient stopping point, particularly since many later registers would be in regular use in the parishes.

Are the transcripts complete ?
Wood (and others) used a number of standard abbreviations eg “p” for parish, “opo” for “of the parish of”, but otherwise the complete details seem to have been copied from the registers. There is the usual “health warning” – these are transcripts or copies and the transcribers may have misread the often difficult original handwriting, or may have made other errors or omissions. Always check what you find against the original register if this is at all possible!

Are the transcripts readable, despite being old?
In the main, yes. However, in a few cases eg Whickham, the transcript volume has been so heavily used that it has needed rebinding and in this process a very tight binding has been used, with consequent damage to left edges of some pages. The ink on pages has at times faded, too, but is generally readable on the fiche.

Any samples?
Yes, details from the Netherwitton transcript can be seen here. (Note: image is 246KB in size, and may take a minute to download.)

Is there any other information about the transcripts?
Further details of particular sets of fiche can be found on the Additional Information webpage

What about post-1812 registers?
As stated, a few are included on our lists, but in the main, Northfiche is unable to help. Newcastle Library does have some post-1812 transcripts other than those reproduced on fiche, but they are relatively recent productions and cannot be reproduced for copyright reasons.

Will any more parishes be covered by Northfiche?
Sadly, no. We now include almost all the available transcripts, apart from one or two which are in poor condition and cannot be filmed or reproduced.

Does Newcastle Library benefit from Northfiche sales?
Yes, a proportion of the sale price of each fiche is paid to the Library, to assist in the preservation and expansion of its collections. Northfiche is grateful to the Library for allowing reproduction of their volumes, and in particular thanks the staff of the Local Studies section for their help. The microfiche are NOT available for sale at the Library.