Chester le Street, Durham Genealogy

England Durham

Parish History
The Church of St Mary and St Cuthbert is an ancient parish. When in 883 the monks fled from Lindisfarne with the body of Cuthbert, they settled at Chester le Street. The present church occupies the site of the former original wooden church which remained until the time of the fourth Bishop of Durham Egelric (1042-1056) who replaced it with a stone church. The present church is believed to includes elements of the stonework from that time.

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 neighboring 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.

The Parish Registers for the period 1582-1988 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/52 1765-1837 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at Record Search.

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. .

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

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.