Ferryhill, Durham Genealogy

England Durham

Parish History
Ferryhill St Luke was created as a parish in 1843 from part of the ancient parish of Merrington. It included Chilton, Tudhoe and Low Spennymoor. Part of the parish subsequently became Tudhoe Holy Innocents and Chilton St Aidan parishes.

FERRY-HILL, a township, in the parish of Merrington, union of Sedgefield, S. E. division of Darlington ward, S. division of the county of Durham, 5¾ miles (E. N. E.) from Bishop-Auckland; containing 850 inhabitants. There are collieries in the neighbourhood, to which a branch of the Clarence railway extends, and in this township the Byers-Green branch diverges from the Durham branch of that line. Here is also a station of the York and Newcastle railway. A church, dedicated to St. Luke, was erected in 1828, and made a district church in 1843 for Ferry-Hill and Chilton townships. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Durham: the tithes of the township of Ferry-Hill have been commuted for £276 payable to the perpetual curate, and £68 to the vicar of Merrington. At an early period the convent of Durham had a chapel here, dedicated to St. Ebbe and St. Nicholas, and also a court-house, swannery, and fish-pool; there are still some remains of the swan-house, and a rent called swan-oats is yet paid.

From: 'Fenton - Fersfield', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 230-232. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50961 Date accessed: 21 March 2011.

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/ 2/108 1843-1864 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at Record Search.

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 1843-1994 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/Fer).

FamilySearch Historical Records includes England Durham Marriage Bonds and Allegations (FamilySearch Collection)

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Sedgefield 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

Web sites
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.