England, Durham Diocese Bishops' Transcripts - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection consists of church records from the county of Durham for the years from 1639-1919. The collection also includes records from select parishes in the counties of Northumberland, York, Yorkshire, and Cumberland.

A parish register is a record of religious ordinances performed in the Church of England. Beginning in 1538, every parish priest was required to write down certain information about every baptism (officially termed “christening” in Anglican use), marriage, and burial that took place in his parish over the course of each year. He was then supposed to bind these pages into a single volume, thereby annually producing a comprehensive history of his ministerial efforts. After 1754, a new law required that marriages be recorded in a separate book, and banns (public proclamations of a couple’s intent to marry) were to be recorded in yet another book. Starting in 1812, pre-printed registers were introduced, and separate registers were then kept for baptisms, marriages, and burials. It should also be noted that many parish records were not kept during the Interregnum, 1649-1660, due to temporary changes in the hierarchy of the Church of England.

Due to this long and relatively stable tradition, parish registers are central to English genealogical research as they are often one of the only sources for finding families and individuals in England before the start of civil registration in 1837.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism

Before 1812  Included after 1812
 * Date and place of baptism
 * Full name of child
 * Sex of child
 * Legitimacy of child
 * Full names of parents
 * Residence of parents
 * Marital status of parents
 * Occupations of parents
 * Names of godparents
 * Names, ages, occupations, and residences of witnesses
 * Name of minister

Marriage

Before 1754  Included after 1754 Included after 1837
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Full names of bride and groom
 * Dates of the proclamation of banns
 * Residences of bride and groom
 * Full names of witnesses
 * Name of minister
 * Ages of bride and groom
 * Previous marital statuses of bride and groom
 * Full names of parents
 * Occupation of groom

Burial

Before 1812 Included after 1812
 * Date and place of burial
 * Name of deceased
 * Marital status of deceased
 * Name of spouse
 * Age at death
 * Residence of deceased
 * Name of father, esp. if infant
 * Sex of deceased, esp. if infant

Collection Content
For additional details about these records and help using them see England Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Historical Records

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Name of the person
 * Approximate date of the event

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the :
 * 1) Select Place
 * 2) Select Parish
 * 3) Select Year Range to view the images

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

Some of the records in this collection may be written in an old script that can be challenging to read. Refer to BYU’s Script Tutorial for assistance with reading the records.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Save or print a copy of the image or record, if possible. The original may contain information that was not recorded in the index
 * Use the information which you have found to estimate ages in other life events. For example, use a christening date to approximate a marriage date, or a burial record to calculate an estimated year of birth
 * Once you have found a christening or a burial church record, you may want to search for birth and death in civil records (1837 and later)
 * Use the information you have found to find the person and families in census records
 * Continue to search the index to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives. Note that family members often appear on an individual's records, such as in the role of witnesses to a marriage

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * When looking for an individual with a common name, look at all the search results before deciding which is the correct person
 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname
 * Be careful using the listed age on a marriage record to estimate a birth year. Rather than listing actual ages, clerks often wrote in 21 as the age of both the bride and groom to show that they each were of legal age
 * Search the records of nearby locations
 * Tyne, Wear, and Northumberland to the north
 * Cumbria to the west
 * North Yorkshire to the south
 * Check for other names. An individual might have been listed under a middle name, a nickname, or an abbreviation of their given name
 * Spelling was not standardized for much of the period of this collection, so names were often spelled as scribes heard them. Try searching based on how the name may have been pronounced
 * Vary the search terms. For example, expand the date range or search by either the given name or surname to return a broader list of results
 * The individual might not have records in the Church of England at all, but rather might have belonged to a nonconformist denomination
 * When you search baptismal records, remember that it was not unusual for a child to be baptized weeks or even months after birth
 * Note that marriages often took place in the parish where the bride resided

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in Durham.
 * Durham Guided Research
 * England Record Finder
 * England Research Tips and Strategies

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.