North Sunderland, Northumberland Genealogy

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

Parish History
SUNDERLAND, NORTH, a township, in the parish, and N. division of the ward, of Bambrough, union of Belford, N. division of Northumberland, 8½ miles (E. by S.) from Belford; There is a place of worship for Presbyterians.

Additional information:

North Sunderland St Pauls Parish was created in 1843 from Bamburgh, Northumberland Ancient Parish.Church of England parish registers begin in 1833. Church of England Bishops' transcripts exist from 1842.

NORTH SUNDERLAND is a township, parish and large village on the east coast, 8 miles south-east from Belford. North Sunderland was formed into an ecclesiastical parish from Bamburgh in 1833, and includes the townships of North Sunderland, Fleetham and Elford, in the Berwick-upon-Tweed division of the county, Bamburgh ward and petty sessional division, union of Belford, county court district of Berwick-on-Tweed, rural deanery of Bamburgh, archdeaconry of Lindisfarne and diocese of Newcastle.

The church of St. Paul is an edifice of stone in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisle and a western belfry containing 2 bells: there is a memorial window (erected by his sister, Mary Embleton) to Sidney Howey, who with his wife and six children, was drowned off Sydney Heads in June 1838; another, erected by the Rev. F.R. Simpson, a former incumbent, to his wife and children, and a third in the chancel, erected by J.R. Johnson esq. M.A. of North Sunderland, to the memory of his father: the three west windows, in memory of the Rev. A.M. MacPhee M.A. vicar 1890-1902, were presented in 1924 by his widow: there is also a brass tablet to the Rev. Evan Hughes, incumbent 1886-90, who died 27 Oct. 1890: a new organ was provided in 1921: the church affords 300 sittings. The register dates from the year 1834. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £395, with house, in the gift of Lord Crewe's trustees, and held since 1912 by the Rev. Frederick Stone M.A. of Oxford University. [Kelly's Northumberland Directory (1925), page 495.]

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
Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections Reference number: DDR/EA/PBT/2/247 Date: 1842-1844 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records.

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.

North Sunderland, St Paul: Records of baptisms 1833-1901, marriages 1837-1901 and burials 1833-1982 are available at Northumberland Collections Service.

Poor Law Unions
Belford 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