RECORDS OF BIRTH, BAPTISM, MARRIAGE, DEATH, BURIAL AND PROBATE

Details of the coverage relating to particular parishes are listed in the parish specific guide, however the following gives an area wide perspective..

Civil registration

The central indices to the statutory registers of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales since 1837 are held at the Family Records Centre. From 1912 onwards the mother's maiden surname is included in the indices for births, and the spouse's surname in the indices for marriages. The death indices include the age at death from 1866-1968 and the date of birth after 1969. 

The majority of indices relating to the Middlesbrough area (including Stockton-on-Tees, Guisborough, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Redcar & Cleveland Registration Districts) are now searchable online, although there are still limitations in the online database coverage.

The GENUKI website provides a useful guide to the registration districts of the North Riding of Yorkshire.

Parish registers

Most original registers are held at either TA or NYCRO (see parish specific guide), and are generally available for consultation on microfilm. A number have been transcribed, indexed and published by the YAS Parish Register Section, and most are included in part in the International Genealogical Index [IGI] of the Mormon Church which is widely available in libraries on microfiche or via the Family Search CD-ROM. A range of other transcripts and indices exist at the local record offices. A number of modern transcripts are available for purchase from the Cleveland FHS. There are a wide range of Yorkshire parish register copies in the Society of Genealogists library.

Bishops' transcripts

The Provincial Constitution of Canterbury (1598) required that copies of the registers for baptisms, marriages and burials be sent annually to the diocesan registry. The records for Yorkshire are housed at the Borthwick Institute, which publishes a full list of surviving transcripts.

Marriage licences, bonds and allegations

The majority of York Archbishop's Court marriage licence registers no longer survive, however William Paver (d. 1871) transcribed many of the entries into two manuscript volumes now in the British Museum (Add.MSS.29667-8). Those dated 1567 to 1630 were printed in the YAS Journal volumes vii, ix-xiv, xvi, xvii and xx, and a consolidated index is available in the YAS Extra Series Vol 2. Those for 1630-1644 (with index) are in YASRS 40, with 1660-1674 in YASRS 43 and 1674-1714 in YASRS 46. The only original register surviving at the Borthwick covers the period from 1618-1620. The entries for 1567-1628, combined with additional entries from the surviving original register, are available online via GENUKI.

Fortunately, a substantial collection (701 boxes) of the related marriage bonds (1660-1823) and allegations (1660-1950) still survive at the Borthwick, who published a series of typescript calendars between 1986 and 1999, spanning the period from the end of Paver's index to the beginning of Civil registration (1715-1839), indexed by both male and female surname. Copies are held at the Borthwick and the SOG. There are also two manuscript indices (to male names only) for the period 1886-1914 at the Borthwick.

 In addition to the Archbishop's Court, marriage bonds survive for the peculiars of Hexham and Hexhamshire (1704-1733), the Dean and Chapter (1613-1823, plus allegations 1613-1879, and a list of licences 1662-1729), Acomb (1714-1823, plus allegations 1714-1863), Alne and Tollerton (1782-1823, plus allegations 1782-1865), Bishop Wilton (1716-1823, plus allegations 1716-1865, a list of licences 1699-1782, and licences for 1771-1775), South Cave (1793-1823, plus allegations 1793-1865), Howden and Howdenshire (1709-1823, plus allegations 1709-1865), Selby (1664-1823, plus allegations 1664-1868, and a list of licences 1735-1740 and 1790-1794) and Snaith (1629-1789). Some of the Selby marriage bonds for 1664-1710 were indexed in YASRS 47.

It should be noted that during the vacancy of the see, jurisdiction for matrimonial matters transferred from the Archbishop's Court to that of the Dean and Chapter, and this applies to licences, bonds and allegations for 1660, 1664, 1683, 1686-1688, 1761, 1776-1777, 1807-1808, 1847 and 1860.

Marriage indices

Boyd's Marriage Index [BMI]

The Joiner Marriage Index [JMI] has been built up by Paul Joiner of the Cleveland FHS, initially to include parishes not covered by the BMI before 1837. Paul's website includes a copy of the index to grooms, index to brides and list of parishes covered as at December 1996, but is also available for consultation at Teesside Archives.

Monumental inscriptions

Most transcripts and indices are listed under the specific parishes to which they relate, however a few general guides are summarised here.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission provides a very useful searchable online database to the graves of those killed in the two World Wars.
There are a large range of locally relevant transcripts available for sale from the Cleveland FHS.
Mel Towler has published a collection of sundry MI's from around Yorkshire

Inquisitions post mortem

From the reign of Henry III (1216-1272), records survive of inquests which were held on the death of tenants-in-chief of the Crown, establishing the date of death, age of the heir, and the lands held. Many have been calendared by the PRO.

Inquisitions post mortem relating to Yorkshire have been catalogued and published for the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V (1399-1422, YASRS 59), and the reigns of James I and Charles I (1603-1649) in the courts of chancery and of wards and liveries (YASRS 1)

Wills, administrations and inventories pre-1858

Most probate grants relating to Cleveland took part in the Prerogative Court of York [PCY], and the associated copies of wills, administrations, inventories and related indices are held in the probate collection of the Borthwick Institute. The indices to wills and administrations from 1379 to 1688 were published in the Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series and can be consulted at several libraries including the Society of Genealogists. Probate inventories 1542-1689 were published in YASRS 134.

A very useful list of all Yorkshire probate indices and calendars has been collated by Colin Blanshard Withers.

Wills, administrations and inventories post-1858

These are held at the Family Records Centre. Copies of the indices are available on microfiche at the Family Records Centre and the Public Record Office.

Death duty registers

Microfilm copies of Estate Duty Office death duty registers 1796-1858 are held at the Family Record Centre.

This page was last updated on 18 September, 2002