Rainton, Durham Genealogy

England Durham

Parish History
St Mary West Rainton was built as a parish church in 1864, but the chapelry of Rainton built in 1825 was a chapelry within the parish of Houghton-le-Spring. The chapelry and parish included Cocken, Moorhouse and West Rainton. The parish was created by order in Council 15 May 1838.

St Cuthbert East Rainton was created as a parish in 1866 from West Rainton St Mary parish. Subsequently the parishes of Chilton Moor St Andrew (1872) and Moorsley St Oswald (circa 1947) were created from its boundaries.

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
To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/208/1 1825-1839 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at Record Search. The transcripts for this period have been included in the Houghton-le-Spring image assembly 1825-1839 and await engineering correction.

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.

The Parish Registers for the period 1825-1987 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/WR).

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Houghton le Spring 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

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