Greystead, Northumberland Genealogy

Guide to Greystead, Northumberland ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
GREYSTEAD, or Gaystead, a parish in the union of Bellingham, N. W. division of Tindale ward, S. division of Northumberland, 20 miles (N. W.) from Hexham with the townships of Chirdon and Smalesmouth.

Additional information:

GREYSTEAD St Luke includes Chirdon and Smalesmouth, which were separated from the ancient parish of Simonburn by act of parliament, in 1811, and consists principally of moors and mountains and high Forest.

The church, situated on the south side of the North Tyne on the main road to Falstone and Kielder, is a plain building of stone in the Gothic style, consisting of nave, south porch and low embattled western tower, containing one bell: the church was restored and reseated in 1879, and has 150 sittings. The register dates from the year 1818. The living is a rectory, average tithe rent-charge £126, net yearly value £150, including 15 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, and held since 1886 by the Rev. Francis William Ames, of Trinity College, Dublin. [Kelly's Durham and Northumberland Directory (1890), p.774.]

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
Greystead 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 Northumberland Archives.

Poor Law Unions
Bellingham Poor Law Union, Northumberland

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Northumberland 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