England, Northumberland, Parish Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

This consists of parish registers from the county of Northumberland for the years 1538-1950.

Why Should I Look at This Collection?
Parish registers have been kept at the local level across England since the mid-1500s. Due to this long and relatively stable tradition, these records 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.

To learn more about the content and significance of parish registers, please see the England Parish Registers page.

What Is in This Collection?
This collection contains images of baptismal, marriage, and burial records. The original records are held at the Northumberland Archives.

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching, it is best to know the following information: As you search, compare your results with this information to find a match.
 * Name of the person
 * Date range for the record

View the Images

 * 1) Go to the collection Browse Page.
 * 2) Click on the correct Name of County link.
 * 3) Click on the correct Name of Town, Parish/Church link.
 * 4) Click on the correct Event Type and Year Range (with Volume) link to go to the image viewer.
 * 5) Use the onscreen controls to move between record images as you look for a match.

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

 * Copy down all the information from the record. Save or print a copy of the image, if possible.
 * Cite the record; see below for help citing this collection.
 * Use the information which has been discovered to find more. For instance, use the age listed in the record to estimate a year of birth, if that is yet undetermined.
 * If in the appropriate period, use the information which has been discovered to find the individual in civil records. Particularly useful for research in nineteenth-century England are the England Census and the England Civil Registration records.
 * Continue to search the index to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives. Remember that family members often appear on an individual's vital 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 a person with a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which individual is correct. Use other information, such as place of birth, age, occupation, or names of parents, to determine which candidate is the correct person. If listed, a personal title may be a clue to property ownership or occupation, either of which might be noted in other records.
 * Vary the search terms. For example, search by either the given name or surname to return broader list of possible candidates which can then be examined for matches. Alternatively, try expanding the date range; this is especially useful in searching baptismal records, as it was not unusual for a child to be baptized weeks or even months after birth.
 * Check for variants of given names and surnames. An individual might appear under a different name in a record for a variety of reasons:
 * An individual might have been listed under a middle name, nickname, or abbreviation of their given name.
 * Spelling was not standardized for much of the period of this collection, so names were often spelled as they were pronounced. Pay attention to how the name should have been pronounced and try spelling variations that could have that pronunciation.
 * Some women reverted to their maiden names after the death of their husbands.
 * Search the records of bordering locations. In the period of this collection, most people never lived more than 20 miles from their place of birth, though smaller moves were common. For this collection, bordering locations include the English counties of Yorkshire and County Durham to the south, Cumberland to the west, or the Scottish counties of Berwickshire and Roxburghshire to the north.
 * The individual in question might not have records in the Church of England at all, but rather belonged to a nonconformist denomination. See the Northumberland Nonconformist Records page for more information.

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.


 * Collection Citation:

“England, Northumberland, Parish Registers, 1538-1950.” Index. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 2016. Citing the Woodhorn Museum and Northumberland Archives.

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