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England Stratford-upon-Avon (city)

Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



HISTORY
Stratford has Anglo-Saxon origins, and developed as a market town during the medieval period. The original charters of the town were granted in 1196, making Stratford over 800 years old. The name is a combination of the Old English strǣt, meaning "street", and ford, indicating a site at which a road forded a river.

For most of its history, Stratford lay in the shadow of larger towns and cities in the area. Such places as Warwick, Leamington Spa, and Worcester were of much greater significance.

It was not until 1769 when the actor David Garrick organized a 3 day extravaganza of Shakespeare's works, that the phenomenon of "Bardolatry" was started, and that has continued to this day.

LOCATION
Newcastle upon Tyne, known commonly and locally as just Newcastle, is located on the north bank of the river Tyne. It is about 280 miles north of London, but in close proximity to Leeds, Sheffield, and Manchester. It is about 9 miles from the North Sea, and the river is navigable for oceangoing vessels as far as the city docks.

The ground beneath the city is formed from Carboniferous strata of the Middle Pennine Coal Measures Group—a suite of sandstones, mud-stones and coal seams which generally dip moderately eastwards. To the west of the city are the Upper Pennine Coal Measures and further west again the sandstones and mud-stones of the Stainmore Formation. The area to the west of the city has been known for centuries as the source of much of the coal for north east England.

RELIGION
Newcastle has three cathedrals, the Anglican St. Nicholas, with its elegant lantern tower of 1474, the Roman Catholic St. Mary's designed by Augustus Welby Pugin and the Coptic Cathedral located in Fenham. It is extremely unusual in England to have a high Coptic (Egyptian Christian) population, but Newcastle does.

Newcastle is home to the only Bahá’í Center (Ancient Persian religion) in North East England, the center has served the local Bahá’í community for over 25 years and is located close to the Civic Center in Jesmon.

Newcastle was also a prominent center of the Plymouth Brethren movement up to the 1950s and some small congregations still function. Among these are at the Hall, Denmark Street and Gospel Hall, St Lawrence.

It should be noted that, anciently, Newcastle upon Tyne started out as a single parish. However with the major growth in population starting at the Industrial Revolution, the main city now incorporates a number of separate parishes, and is no longer a parish, but a city Cathedral disrict of the Church of England.

INDUSTRY
Newcastle played a major role during the 19th-century Industrial Revolution, and was a leading center for coal mining and manufacturing. In addition to actual manufacturing sites, Newcastle was the de facto port for the shipment of products from neighboring manufacturing areas, and also for coal from the many collieries in the area.

However heavy industries in Newcastle have declined in the second half of the 20th century. Additionally more than 95% of all British coal mines have been shut since about 1980.

Today Newcastle is more known for service industries such as banking, education, and publishing for the north east.

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.

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.

CEMETERIES AND GRAVEYARDS

 * Newcastle cemeteries and graves


 * Findagrave, West Road cemetery


 * Findagrave Heaton cemetery


 * Findagrave All Saints cemetery


 * Findagrave Old Jesmond cemetery

GENEALOGY SOCIETIES

 * Northumberland and Durham Genealogy Society


 * Local Newcastle genealogy records


 * Forebears, Newcastle


 * genuki Northumberland