Houghton le Spring, Durham Genealogy

England Durham



Parish History
St Michael Houghton-le-Spring is an ancient parish and parts of the church are Norman the remainder thirteenth century.

The parish includes Biddick Waterville, Burn Moors, Cocken,Eppleton, East and Middle Herrington, West Herrington, Offerton, South Biddick,Moor House, Morsley, Middleton Grange,Offerton and Wardenlaw.

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

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/141 1762-1847 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records. Additional Burial ground transcripts for 1892-1896 for Houghton-le-Spring Municipal Cemetery are included DDR/EA/PBT/2/141

The dates of the post-1760 transcripts have been noted in detail and sometimes only cover years. For most parishes in the collection there are gaps in the sequence of transcripts. It is advisable to consult the original parish registers for these years and events.

There is a missing legible image in the Marriage record sequence for 1762- 1822 at image 156 of 556 PBT/2/141/145 for marriages after March 1805

The parish register for this year may be found

The Parish Registers for the period 1563-1989 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/Ho)

FamilySearch Historical Records includes England, Durham Diocese, Marriage Bonds and Allegations (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Non Conformist Churches
The Family History Library has Methodist Circuit Baptisms and Marriages  This book shows dates, places and names of individuals. This is a large books with thousands of entries.

Poor Law Unions
Houghton le Spring 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

Web sites
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.