Durham Castle and Precincts, Durham Genealogy

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

Parish History
Durham Castle and Precincts is an extra parochial place which ceased to be a parish, is still recognised as separate, the inhabitants having no parochial rights in any other church, and are without a church. It is necessary to search other city parishes for events. The castle had, at one time, two ancient chapels built within its precincts, including Norman Chapel (ca. 1078), and Tunstall Chapel (built by 1530), the Tunstall Chapel of which is still in use today for worship and concerts.

DURHAM, a city, the capital of the county of Durham, and the head of a union, 67 miles ESE from Carlisle, 87 NE from Lancaster, 67 NW by W from York. The city is surmounted by the cathedral and the remains of the ancient castle, together with other ecclesiastical residences. The college was established at the same time as the university. The city comprises several parishes: St. Giles, St. Mary Le Bow, St. Mary-the-less, St. Nicholas', St. Oswald's, St. Margaret's, as well as The (Durham) Cathedral.

There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Durham ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Durham ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Poor Law Unions

 * Durham 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
Durham City on GENUKI