Houghton le Spring, Durham Genealogy

Guide to Houghton le Spring, Durham family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING (St. Michael), a town and parish, and the head of a union, in the N division of Easington ward and of the county of Durham, 6½ miles NE from Durham, and 266 NNW from London. There are meeting-houses for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, and a Roman Catholic chapel.

Additional information: St Michael Houghton-le-Spring is an ancient parish and parts of the church are Norman, the remainder are from the thirteenth century.

The parish includes Biddick Waterville, Burn Moors, Cocken, Eppleton, East and Middle Herrington, West Herrington, Offerton, South Biddick, Moor House, Morsley, Middleton Grange, Offerton and Warden Law.

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
Houghton le Spring parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

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

Records are also available at the Durham County Record Office.

Non Conformist Churches
The Family History Library has Methodist Circuit Baptisms and Marriages  This book shows dates, places and names of individuals. This is a large books with thousands of entries.


 * Baptist
 * Primitive Methodist
 * Roman Catholic
 * United Presbyterian Church of Scotland
 * Wesleyan Methodist
 * Wesleyan Methodist Association

Genealogy From Periodicals,
Betts, Enid. A Sanderson Family and Its Branches. History of Stepen Sanderson born 1811, and his wife Elizabeth Aisbitt and descendants. According to the IGI the Sandersons were in Houghton le Spring, from the late 1500's. Other areas the descendants were in:  Eighton Banks, Gateshead Pelaw, Bishop Wearmouth, with a branch going to USA and another branch to Australia. Surnames mention: Liddell, Fenwick, Wynn, Armstrong, Hunter, Best, Murray, Reay, Lockey, Wanless and Smith. Article dated 1560-1985, and is found in The Northumberland &amp; Durham Family History Society Journal, vol.27, no.3,pages 92-95. Family History Library Reference 942.8 B2jo v.27.no.3.(autumn 2002)

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

Websites
Houghton le Spring on GENUKI