What are Parish Registers?

Parish Registers are records of baptisms, marriages and burials conducted by the Church of England in County Durham.

From 1538, by decree of Henry VIII, all baptisms, marriages and burials in a parish had to be recorded in a book. This could be written in Latin up to 1733. Parish priests were ordered to:

‘Kepe one boke or registere wherein ye shall write the day and yere of every weddyng christenying and buryeng made within yor parishe …Whiche boke ye shall every Sonday take furthe and in the presence of the said wardens or one of them write and record in the same all the weddinges christenynges and buryenges made the hole weke before.’

Events were supposed to be written up in the parish register every week, but often the clerk used scraps of parchment which were subsequently made into a book, or which were transcribed into a new book later. Most of the earliest records have not survived, though this image is from a register that starts in 1538.

By 1598 most parishes were keeping good records.

The rules for how registers have been kept have changed over time. You can find more information about this later in this guide.

What we hold

At The Story we hold registers for all parishes in the Diocese of Durham which broadly equates to the historic county boundaries. 

The area covered is to the River Tyne in the north, the River Tees in the south, Durham Dales in the west, and to the sea in the east.

We also hold registers of the County Durham parishes of Hunstanworth, Edmundsbyers and Muggleswick, which are now in the Diocese of Newcastle, as well as records for parishes in the Diocese of Ripon that became part of County Durham from 1974, including Romaldkirk, Startforth, Rokeby, Brignall, Hutton Magna, Wycliffe and Stanwick St. John.

The original County Durham parishes were very large and contained a number of townships (which later became Civil Parishes). From the nineteenth century many more parishes were created. It is often not possible to tell from register entries exactly where in the parish a person lived.

We have an index available in the Collections Room to help you identify the parish a town was in at a particular time.

How to access parish registers

As parish registers are some of our most used documents but can also be very fragile, they have been digitised for you to view using the screens in the Search and Discover area.

Before you start, it is a good to have an idea of which parish your ancestor might have lived in or the church they lived closest to, and a rough idea of dates you might be looking for.

Ask a member of staff for help if you are not sure what church to search for.

You can also use our Church Register Indexes to search for individual names and dates to help guide your search. Not all registers are indexed but we do have an Church Register Index database where you can start your search.

Once you know what parish you would like to search for, open our Church of England Parish Registers viewer to start searching for the parish name to view original records. You can also use our User Guidance page to find out how to use the viewer.

When you are viewing a register, they are usually arranged by date, though very early registers can be more disorganised.

The Collection does also include registers from 1950 onwards, but these registers are not currently available digitally. Please ask a member of staff if you wish to view registers from 1950 onwards.

Handwriting in many early registers can be difficult to read. Please ask a member of staff for assistance if you are having trouble reading a particular word.

What kind of information will you find in baptism registers?

Date of Baptism

We can often assume a child was baptised at a week or two old, though in practice they could be months old. The actual age of older children, or adults baptised, is sometimes given.

Christian Name

The first name of the child being baptised.

Parents’ names, including surname

In the earliest records, sometimes just the father’s name is given. If just the mother’s name is given this usually suggests she was not married; the register then usually notes that the child was ‘illegitimate’ in some way (e.g. “base born”). Where the mother is recently widowed the father is indicated as “late”.

Date of birth

From the nineteenth century onwards a child’s date of birth is usually given.

An indication of a private baptism

This usually indicates a private baptism of a sickly child at home rather than at church as normal. Sometimes there is an indication of when the child was “received into church” later.

Other information

Occasionally registers may include the status or trade of the father, their home, or other information.

Names of godparents are more regularly included from the nineteenth century onwards.

What kind of information will you find in marriage registers?

From 1538 to 1754:

Date of marriage.

Full names of the two parties.

An indication if one party was not resident in that parish, or if the couple were married on licence.

From 1754 additional information includes:

Names of witnesses.

Signatures of the two parties.

An indication if either of the parties were aged under 21.

From 1837, when civil registration was introduced:

Details are the same as for civil registration, including the parties’ addresses and ages, their occupations, both fathers’ names, abodes and occupations. Occasionally a mother’s name appears if she is widowed but usually the late father is named. Sometimes no father’s details appear if he is not known.

What kind of information will you find in burial registers?

From 1538 onwards:

Full name.

Date of burial. This will usually be within a few days of death but can possibly be much later if a coroner’s inquest has been required.

Especially after 1812:

Age. Or father’s name if a child under 21.

Home.

Please note that it is very rare that a burial register will record a grave position. If you are interested in locating a grave site, please ask a member of staff for advice.

Further history of parish registers

By 1598 most parishes were keeping good records, and an additional law was passed that each month’s register entries had to be copied in Bishops’ Transcripts. These are mostly lost for County Durham but those surviving, from 1760s onwards, can be seen through FamilySearch.

From 1653 to 1660, following the Civil War, marriage was a civil rather than a religious ceremony, overseen by local magistrates. Births, marriages and deaths were recorded by a parish clerk; sometimes these records were copied later into the parish registers.

From 1694 to 1705 registration was taxed so sometimes did not happen. But from this time the churches were also expected to record births of children not baptised in the church.

From the later 17^th Century we begin to find records of baptisms in non-conformist churches rather than the parish church. The Society of Friends (Quakers) and Jews were permitted to record their own marriages and burials.

Further history of parish registers

The 1754 marriage act made many changes to marriage protocol. From now on, a separate register was used to record marriages, also recording the calling of banns of marriage.

From 1798 to 1812 we find the “Barrington Registers”. Bishop Shute Barrington had an interest in family history and realised that the typical registers didn’t contain enough information. More detail was recorded in County Durham than elsewhere in England for baptisms and burials.

Rose’s Act of 1812 meant that parishes, from 1813, had to use standardised, printed registers, with separate registers for banns, marriages, baptisms and burials.

Further history of parish registers

1837 saw the start of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths. Marriages were now allowed in certain non-conformist chapels and in the local register office as well as in the parish church.

There is then a general decline in the practice of baptism, especially into the 20^th Century. Proof of residence in a particular parish was very important under the Old Poor Law system but this no longer relied on a baptism record from the 1830s onwards.

From the mid 19^th Century, as churchyard burial space was used up, we see the appearance of municipal cemeteries. By the later 20^th Century there are very few churchyard burials recorded in parish registers. Sometimes funeral services or the interment of ashes are recorded.

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