Houghton le Spring, Durham Genealogy

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

Parish History
HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING (St. Michael), a town and parish, and the head of a union, in the N division of Easington ward and of the county of Durham, 6½ miles NE from Durham, and 266 NNW from London. There are meeting-houses for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, and a Roman Catholic chapel.

Additional information: St Michael Houghton-le-Spring is an ancient parish and parts of the church are Norman, the remainder are from the thirteenth century.

The parish includes Biddick Waterville, Burn Moors, Cocken, Eppleton, East and Middle Herrington, West Herrington, Offerton, South Biddick, Moor House, Morsley, Middleton Grange, Offerton and Warden Law.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate

Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * 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

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)
The Family History Library has Methodist Circuit Baptisms and Marriages This book shows dates, places and names of individuals. This is a large book with thousands of entries.
 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Genealogy From Periodicals,
Betts, Enid. A Sanderson Family and Its Branches. History of Stepen Sanderson born 1811, and his wife Elizabeth Aisbitt and descendants. According to the IGI the Sandersons were in Houghton le Spring, from the late 1500s. Other areas the descendants were in: Eighton Banks, Gateshead Pelaw, Bishop Wearmouth, with a branch going to USA and another branch to Australia. Surnames mention: Liddell, Fenwick, Wynn, Armstrong, Hunter, Best, Murray, Reay, Lockey, Wanless and Smith. Article dated 1560-1985, and is found in The Northumberland & Durham Family History Society Journal, vol. 27, no. 3, pages 92-95. Family History Library Reference 942.8 B2jo v. 27. no. 3.(autumn 2002)

Poor Law Unions

 * Houghton le Spring 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
Houghton le Spring on GENUKI