In a message dated 20/05/2007 06:46:40 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: I have an John ELLISON that was born in 1589 at Ryton in Durham. I have no info on his wife and his parents. John ELLISON was married on the 14 Aug 1614 at Ryton Durham. Help Please. >From Annette Annette: First, I doubt whether you KNOW that he was born at Ryton in 1589. I suspected at first that you had found from the parish register that he was baptised there in that year - almost, but not quite, the same thing! If his family had been in Ryton for some time, then you will probably have to accept that you have got as far back as you can. The registers begin in 1582 and before that there is effectively nothing. HOWEVER, having looked at my own database, which includes all Ryton baptisms for that period, in the hope of identifying the entry and seeing what sort of address is given for the family, I found that I had no trace of that entry, under Ellison, Allison or Allinson. I therefore looked at my own copy of the H M Wood transcript, as far as I know the only transcript of Ryton register for the period, from where I find that there was indeed no such entry in 1589 (1 Jan 1588/89 to 25 March 1589/90), and none that could have been read as anything like "John Ellison". I have, therefore, to ask what your source was for your statement. John's marriage date agrees with the register, his wife Dorothie Merriman, coming from a family very long-established in Ryton (I have a feeling they were there at the time of Hatfield's survey in c1382: they were also present in Boldon parish). Ryton has a very good set of tithe records but they, too, begin in the 1580s. If you think the family had anything worth putting in a Will you could check for one - any Will would be in Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections. However, be warned that the palaeography involved in reading one from the 1580s can be quite an obstacle if you are not used to it! Another possible source, but one which would require even greater palaeographic skills, and even more time in Durham University Library to pore over the documents, is if the family were copyholders in Ryton Manor, under the Bishop of Durham, who was Lord of the Manor there. That is, if they were farmers. You could search the Halmote Court Records and seek transactions recording their taking up of copyholds. However, it is not easy and is extremely demanding of time. The Halmote records have never been transcribed and to the best of my knowledge are not on-line anywhere at all. I have to say that from my own researches into the history of Ryton I do not recognise the surname Ellison/Allison as having been a particularly prominent one in Ryton parish. The only possible entry from anyone of the surname in 1589 could be the baptism of "Ellinor, d Thomas Allison, Spen", on 27 July 1589. High Spen was partly in the township of Winlaton and partly in that of Chopwell (though the 16th century High Spen farm was probably that now opposite the "Bute Arms", on the Winlaton side of the road, and no doubt farming only land in that Manor), while Low Spen was entirely within Winlaton Manor. At the time the Manor of Winlaton was owned by a consortium of Newcastle merchants and that of Chopwell by Sir Robert Constable of Flamborough in Yorkshire. Geoff Nicholson