Seaham, Durham Genealogy

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

Parish History
SEAHAM (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Easington, N division of Easington ward and of the county of Durham, 6 miles S by E from Sunderland.

Additional information: The parish of Seaham was created from the ancient Parish of Dalton le Dale, Durham and has a Norman church. The dedication of the church was changed from St Andrew to St Mary the Virgin. There are references to the church dating back to 1501 although the building shows signs of much earlier construction and is the only surviving building of the original Saxon Village. The church was founded by King Athelstan in 930 AD. It has both Saxon and early Norman masonry in its nave, a 13th century chancel and west tower. Over the 16th century porch door is a late 18th century sundial with an unusual verse, now illegible, which begins: "The natural clockwork by the mighty one wound up at first and ever since has gone....."

Other places in the parish include: New Seaham, Seaham Colliery, Seaton and Slingley, Seaton with Slingley, and Seaton with Slingsby.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Durham ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Durham ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images

Poor Law Unions

 * Easington 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

Websites
Seaham on GENUKI