Shincliffe, Durham Genealogy

England Durham  Durham Parishes

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

Parish History
SHINCLIFFE, a chapelry, in the parish of St. Oswald, union of Durham, S. division of Easington ward, N. division of the county of Durham, 1¾ mile (S. E.) from Durham.

Additional information: Shincliffe St Mary the Virgin is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Durham, created in 1827 from Durham St Oswald Ancient Parish.

Shincliffe was an outlying part of the large Durham parish of St. Oswald's. A rectory was built in the village in 1800, and a Chapel of Ease in 1826. Shincliffe became a parish in its own right in 1831, however the Parish Church, St. Mary's, was not built until 1851. John Wesley preached in Shincliffe in 1780. A (Wesleyan) Methodist Chapel opened in Shincliffe in 1874.

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/2/229 dates 1826-1879 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records. Engineering work will be undertaken in future to improve access to the Parish Register transcripts. The transcripts can be viewed at present under Rennington Northumberland and will be reloaded in the correct county.

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 1826-1991 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/Shi).

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