Gainford, Durham Genealogy

Guide to Gainford, Durham family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
GAINFORD (St. Mary), aparish, in the unions of Teesdale, Darlington, and Auckland, chiefly in the S. W., but partly in the S. E., division of Darlington ward, S. division of the county of Durham; comprising the chapelries of Barnard-Castle, Denton, and Whorlton, and the townships of Bolam, Cleatlam, Gainford, Headlam, Houghton-le-Side, Langton, Marwood, Morton-Tynemouth, Pierse-Bridge, Stainton with Streatlam, Summerhouse, and Westwick. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

Additional information: Gainford St Mary is an ancient parish and the present church is believed to have been built in the thirteenth century by the community of St Mary's Abbey ,York. The earlier church on the site is referred to by Simeon of Durham as the burial place of Edw or Edwine in 801. He had entered the monastic community of Gainford as a former Northumbrian chief.

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. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Gainford parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Durham County Record Office.

Non Conformist Churches

 * Independent/Congregational
 * Roman Catholic
 * Wesleyan Methodist

Poor Law Unions
Teesdale Poor Law Union, Durham

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Durham Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Gainford on GENUKI