Gainford, Durham Genealogy

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

Parish History
GAINFORD (St. Mary), a parish, in the unions of Teesdale, Darlington, and Auckland, chiefly in the SW, but partly in the SE, division of Darlington ward, S division of the county of Durham; comprising the chapelries of Barnard-Castle, Denton, and Whorlton, and the townships of Bolam, Cleatlam, Gainford, Headlam, Houghton-le-Side, Langton, Marwood, Morton Tinmouth, Piercebridge, Stainton with Streatlam, Summerhouse, and Westwick. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

Additional information: Gainford St Mary is an ancient parish and the present church is believed to have been built in the thirteenth century by the community of St Mary's Abbey, York. The earlier church on the site is referred to by Simeon of Durham as the burial place of Edw or Edwine in 801. He had entered the monastic community of Gainford as a former Northumbrian chief.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
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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

Poor Law Unions

 * Teesdale 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
Gainford on GENUKI