Durham St Cuthbert, Durham, England Genealogy

England

Durham

Durham Parishes

Durham St Cuthbert

Guide to Durham St Cuthbert, Durham family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Durham St Cuthbert
Durham St Cuthbert Durham
Type	Chapelry
Civil Jurisdictions
County	Durham
Hundred	Durham City
Poor Law Union	Not Applicable
Registration District	Durham
Records Begin
Parish registers	1863
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery	Not Applicable
Diocese	Durham
Province	York
Archive
Durham Record Office

Parish History

DURHAM, a city, the capital of the county of Durham, and the head of a union, 67 miles ESE from Carlisle, 87 NE from Lancaster, 67 NW by W from York. The city is surmounted by the cathedral and the remains of the ancient castle, together with other ecclesiastical residences. The college was established at the same time as the university. The city comprises several parishes: St. Giles (1584), St. Mary Le Bow (1571), St. Mary-the-less (1560), St. Nicholas' (1540), St. Oswald's (1538), St. Margaret's (1557), as well as The (Durham) Cathedral (1609). The parish of Durham St Oswald's also includes the village and chapelry of Shincliffe (1826) and part of the chapelry of Croxdale (1696) [see also Merrington Parish]. The chapelries of Belmont and St Cuthbert were built respectively in the years 1858 and 1863 both of which also stood within the boundary of Durham ancient parish.

There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics.

The Cathedral, originally dedicated to St Cuthbert until the Reformation, was then changed to Christ and St Mary. In 1863, a chapelry was created with a chapel, built within the ancient and civil parish of Durham, dedicated to St Cuthbert and is still in existence and in use today.

The earliest account of the place is in 995, when the bishop and monks of Lindisfarne, afterwards called Holy Island, who had removed to Chester-le-Street, and subsequently to Ripon, for sanctuary from the violence of Danish aggression, were returning to their church at Chester-le-Street, after an absence of four months, with the disinterred body of St. Cuthbert, which had been buried at Lindisfarne, in 687. According to the superstitious legend, on their arrival at the spot where Durham now stands, a miraculous interposition rendered the carriage which conveyed the body, and other relics, immovable; and this incident they construed into a divine prohibition against the return of the saint's remains to their former resting-place. They likewise interpreted some other circumstances into an intimation that Dunholme was destined to receive the sacred relics; and on the west corner tower of the east transept of the cathedral are still some emblematic devices designed to commemorate the occurrence. They forthwith proceeded to construct a sort of ark, or tabernacle, of wicker-work, wherein they deposited the saint's body; subsequently a more appropriate edifice was erected, called the White Church.

Resources

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Civil Registration

Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day.

• See England Civil Registration for online resources and information.
  
  

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:

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

Hover over the collection's title for more information

Durham Online Parish Records
Collections	Baptisms		Marriages		Burials
	Indexes and images	Indexes only	Indexes and images	Indexes only	Indexes and images	Indexes only
FamilySearch Collections-Durham	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Catalog	1700s-1800s	-	1700s-1800s	-	1700s-1800s	-
FreeREG	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s
Findmypast-Durham ($)	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
Ancestry-England Select Births, Marriages, Death, and Burials ($)	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
Databases with Known Incomplete Parish Coverage
Boyd's Marriage Indexes-FMP (Free)	-	-	-	1500s-1800s	-	-
National Burial Index-FMP (Free)	-	-	-	-	-	1800s-1900s

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
• {{RecordSearch|1918635|England, Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, Miscellaneous Records (FamilySearch) - free}

Nonconformist Records

"Nonconformist" is a term referring to religious denominations other than an established or state church. In England, the state church is the Church of England.

1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast - index & images ($)

• England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages at Findmypast — index & images ($); coverage may vary

Census Records

Census records from 1841 to 1921 are available online. See England Census for more resources.

Poor Law Unions

• Durham 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

References

Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren't mentioned above.