Discover your English ancestry in the Northumberland and Durham baptism records. The records will reveal not just your ancestor’s name but also his/her parents’ names. You will also discover their occupations and where they lived. The records include baptisms from Presbyterian, Independent, Wesleyan, Methodist and Anglican parishes.
These records include a transcript taken from the original baptism records. The records were created by the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society, formed in 1975. The details in each record can vary, but most will include:
*The occupation of the parent is either listed in the ‘Occupation’ or ‘Father/Mother other’ field. Also, the ‘Description’ field usually includes the name of the Church in which the baptism took place and ‘Place’ refers to the village of the baptism.
The Local Government Act, 1972 reformed the local government on the county and district levels in England and Wales. All the changes were put into place by 1974. For this reason, the Northumberland and Durham records includes villages outside of their current boundaries; such as, Newcastle in County of Tyne and Wear or Romaldkirk of the County of Yorkshire. Additionally, the records include Cumberland, which is now part of Cumbria.
Over 350 parishes and villages are included in the record set. We have added a full list of parishes in our Useful Links and Resources to assist with your family history research.
Only use the Church field when you are searching larger towns or cities such as Carlisle, Durham, Newcastle, Stockton and Tynemouth. The Church field is not useful when searching a small village with only one parish or church.