Bishopwearmouth St Thomas, Durham Genealogy

England Durham  Durham Parishes

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

Parish History
WEARMOUTH (Bishop)( St Thomas), a township and two sub-districts in Sunderland district, and a parish partly also in Easington and Houghton-le-Spring districts, Durham. The township lies on the coast, at the mouth of the river Wear; includes a large portion of Sunderland town; and is all within Sunderland borough. The parish contains also Burdon and Silksworth townships; and is ecclesiastically cut into the sections of B.-W., B.-W.-St. Thomas, B.-W. St. Peter, Ford, Deptford, Ryhope, Hendon, Silksworth, Millfield, and Pullion.

Bishopwearmouth St Thomas was created as a parish in 1844 from parts of the neighbouring parishes of Bishopwearmouth St Michael, Bishopswearmouth St Peter, Hendon St Paul, Monkswearmouth St Cuthbert, Monkwearmouth Venerable Bede and Sunderland Holy Trinity.

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 Reference number: DDR/EA/PBT/2/35 Date: November 1846-1849 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records. The images have not yet been loaded and await engineering.

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.

The Parish Registers for the period 1846-1943 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/SU/STh).

The following records for churches in the ancient parish of Sunderland are also available at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL:-


 * Deptford 1845-1948 (EP/Su.SA &amp; EP/BiW).
 * Grangetown 1907-1981 (EP/Gra).
 * Hendon, St. Ignatius 1889-1968 (EP/SuSIg).
 * Hendon, St. Paul 1852-1969 (EP/Su.SPa).
 * Middle Hendon 1876-1967 (EP/Su.SB).
 * Pallion, St. Luke 1869-1975 (EP/Pa)

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

Poor Law Unions
Sunderland 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