In a message dated 05/01/2008 09:56:32 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: I think that you will find it is not the easiest database to use (:- )) for instance Sunderland 1769-1842 has 1,412 pages, with no index, and there are a batch of transcripts for Wallsend parish among them. Stan I agree with Stan's comments, and would also point outt he following. Bishops' Transcripts (BTs) are not mentioned on this, or any, List very often and some subscribers may not be familiar with them. Those whose knowledge comes entirely from text-books will have read that in most dioceses the sequence of BTs begins around the time of the start of the parish registers. However, in the case of Durham Diocese (the counties of Durham and Northumberland, plus Alston parish in Cumberland) that is not so, as the BTs have been lost (destroyed) for all years before the 1760s. In practice they are very intermittent for the 1760s, and sometimes for the 1770s also. They usually go up to the start of civil registration (1 July 1837) but they seem to have no definite cut-off date, many parishes ending their runs in 1837 but others lasting right up to the early 20th century. There seems to me to perhaps be some correlation between the end of the BTs and the date when whichever clergyman was in charge in 1837 ceased to hold that position - ie when he either moved on to another parish or died in office. Be warned - the handwriting of the BTs can sometimes be difficult indeed to read. The writing paper used varies between precise reproductions of the post-1812 printed pages of registers to, literally the backs of envelopes. However, BTs, when readily available, should always be checked, as they are not what, in theory, they always should be - exact reproductions of what is in the original registers. Entries appear in the registers which are not in the BTs and vice-versa, some entries having extra information or comments, in the BTs that is not given in the registers. A list of exisitng BTs for Durham Diocese, compiled by their keeper, Margaret McCollum, of Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections (at that time known as the Department of Palaeography and Diplomatic) was published in the first volume of the Journal of the NDFHS, pages 52 and 82, which are now available from that Society on their fascinating CD of the first 25 volumes (100 issues). See also Vol 24, page 6 "Some New BT's found". Geoff Nicholson