Bedlington, Northumberland Genealogy

Guide to Bedlington, Northumberland ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
BEDLINGTON (St. Cuthbert), a parish and division, in the union of Morpeth, N. division of the county of Northumberland, 5½ miles (S. E. by S.) from Morpeth.

Additional Information:

The church is dedicated to St. Cuthbert, whose remains are said to have rested here, on the flight of the monks from Durham upon the approach of the Conqueror, in 1069; it was enlarged and repaired in 1818. At the eastern extremity of the village is a petrifying spring, called Spinner's Well.

The parish of St Paul Choppington was created to serve the colliery at Choppington: A small unpretentious 'colliery church', it was built to serve the growing mining village of Choppington. Architecturally it is simple and uncluttered, set in a spacious churchyard containing some fine beech trees. The processional cross is in memory of those who lost their lives in the two Choppington pits - both closed in the early 1960s. The brass altar cross is of unusual design and of particularly fine workmanship. Once a colliery church, St Paul's now serves a parish of several large housing estates. [The Newcastle Diocesan Gazetteer (1982), page 19.]

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
Bedlington parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Northumberland Archives.

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/19 1760-1858 for Bedlington Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records. The Choppington transcripts are at DDR/EA/PBT/2/55 for 1869-1871. The Bedlington transcripts have yet been loaded and await engineering.

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.

Bedlington, St Cuthbert: Records of baptisms 1653-1950, marriages 1653-1955 and burials 1653-1937 are available at Northumberland Collections Service. The International Genealogical Index (I.G.I.) includes baptisms 1643-1812 and marriages 1653-1812 for this parish, Boyd's Marriage Index includes marriages 1653-1812 and banns 1751-1777. Transcripts of baptisms, burials and marriages 1653-1812 are available at Newcastle Central Library, Local Studies Dept. A transcript of monumental inscriptions at Bedlington (microfiche TN72) is published by Northumberland and Durham Family History Society and these records are also available in book form at Newcastle Central Library, Local Studies Department.

Choppington, St Paul: Records of baptisms 1866-1992, marriages 1866-1993 and burials 1866-1979 are available at Northumberland Collections Service.

Poor Law Unions
Morpeth Poor Law Union, Northumberland

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Northumberland 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