Sunderland (city), Durham Genealogy

Guide to Sunderland, Tyne and Wear ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

See Sunderland parish for parish information.

History
Sunderland is a coastal city at the mouth of the River Wear with adjoining beaches of Roker, Seaburn and Whitburn. The etymology of Sunderland is derived from "Sundered-land" with the river traveling through the city as opposed to sitting "upon" the river.

Historically in County Durham, there were three original settlements on the site of modern-day Sunderland. On the north side of the river, Monkwearmouth was settled in 674 when Benedict Biscop founded the Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey. Opposite the monastery on the south bank, Bishopwearmouth was founded in 930. A small fishing village called Sunderland, located toward the mouth of the river (modern day East End) was granted a charter in 1179.

Over the centuries, Sunderland grew as a port, trading coal and salt. Ships began to be built on the river in the 14th century. By the 19th century, the port of Sunderland had grown to absorb Bishopwearmouth and Monkwearmouth. More recently, Sunderland has seen growth as a commercial center for the automotive industry, science & technology and the service sector.

The modern City of Sunderland (/ˈsʌndərlənd/) is a local government district of Tyne and Wear, in North East England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Sunderland, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Hetton-le-Hole, Houghton-le-Spring, Washington, and a range of suburban villages.

The district was formed in 1974, titled the Metropolitan Borough of Sunderland, as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 and is an amalgamation of four former local government districts of County Durham. It was granted city status in 1992, the 40th anniversary of the Queen Elizabeth II's accession. The city had a population of 275,300 at the time of the 2011 census, with the majority of the population (174,286) residing in Sunderland. The 'Sunderland Built-up Area' (including Whitburn in South Tyneside and Chester-le-Street, Ouston, South Hetton and Pelton in County Durham) is quoted alternatively as having a population of around 335,000.

Cemeteries (Civil )
Sunderland has 3 major civil cemeteries:

Bishopwearmouth Cemetery Chester Road Sunderland SR4 7SU Phone: +44 191 520 5555

Southwick Cemetery 25 Helmsley Ct Sunderland SR5 5HH

Sunderland Cemetery28 Kitchener Terrace Sunderland SR2 9RR

Additionally there are 2 more cemeteries that are now no longer in use, but may have historic value:

Mere Knolls Cemetery 8LG, Torver Cres Sunderland SR6

Houghton Cemetery 16 Dunholm Cl Houghton le Spring DH5 8NX

Parishes
Sunderland has several Anglican churches. These follow:

St. Andrew's Talbot Road Roker Tyne and Wear SR6 9PT

St. Cuthbert's Church Rotherham Rd Sunderland SR5 5QS Phone: +44 191 537 3744

St Mary's and St' Peter's Church Springwell Rd Sunderland SR3 4DY

St. Matthew's Silkworth Silksworth Road New Silksworth Sunderland, SR3 2AA

St. Chad's Durham Road/Charter Drive Sunderland SR3 3PG Phone: 0191 528 2397

St. Peter's Fulwell Road Monkwearmouth Sunderland, SR6 0JD

Non Conformists
Sunderland is a very diverse area, with many races and religions in the community. These include:


 * Baptist
 * Bethany City Church
 * Calvary Christian Fellowship
 * Catholic
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
 * Jehovah's Witnesses
 * Methodist
 * Pentecostal
 * Plymouth Brethren

There are communities of non Christian religions including the following:


 * Buddhist
 * Confucian
 * Jews
 * Muslim
 * Sikh

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes.


 * National Archives
 * UKBMD org

Local Histories

 * Englandsnortheast: Sunderland
 * Localhistories: Sunderland
 * A History of Sunderland by Glen Lyndon Dodds
 * Sunderland Through Time by Keith Cockerill

Maps and Gazetteers

 * google maps: Sunderland
 * Sunderland City Council Maps
 * Oldmapsonline: Sunderland
 * VisionofBritain: Gazetteer

Newspapers

 * The Sunderland Echo
 * The Evening Chronicle

Occupations
Since the demise of the shipbuilding industry in the late twentieth century, Sunderland has had to rebuild its core competence. Since the mid-1980s Sunderland has undergone massive regeneration.

Sunderland University was opened in 1969, and has continued to grow, providing employment opportunities in the field of higher education.

Japanese car manufacturer Nissan opened the Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK factory in 1986, with the first Nissan Bluebird car being produced later that year. The factory and its supplier companies remain the largest employers in the region, with current cars produced there including the Nissan Qashqai and Nissan Juke. As of 2012 over 500,000 cars are produced annually, and it is the UK's largest car factory.

Also in the late 1980s, new service industries moved into sites such as the Doxford International Business Park in the south west of the city, attracting national and international companies. Sunderland was named in the shortlist of the top seven "intelligent cities" in the world for the use of information technology.

Redevelopment of the Monkwearmouth Colliery site, a major producer of coal that was shut down in the 1980's, which sits of the north bank of the river Wear opposite the Vaux site, began in the mid-1990s with the creation of the Stadium of Light football stadium. In 2008, it was joined by the Sunderland aquatic center.

Sunderland used to be a major glass-making center for the UK, with companies such as Corning and Pyrex based there. However these were shut down early in the 21st. century. Recently there has been a modest rejuvenation with the opening of the National Glass Center which, among other things, provides international glass makers with working facilities and a shop to showcase their work, predominantly in the artistic rather than functional field.

Societies

 * Sunderland City records
 * Sunderland Antiquarians
 * Northumberland and Durham Family History Society

Archives

 * Sunderland City Archives
 * Tyne and Wear Archives
 * University of Sunderland Archives

Websites

 * wikipdia: Sunderland, Tyne and Wear
 * Sunderland City Council