In a message dated 23/05/2007 13:02:34 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: I have already looked on Free BMD and found some possibilities but how can I determine who parents were for these children. Free BMD and certain other sites only give you access to the information on the GRO INDEXES. They are just INDEXES to the existence of Birth Certificates. The only way to discover what is on the certificate is to buy a copy, either from the local (S Shields) registrar or from the FRC. From the local registrar the fee is £7. The purchase of a certificate is the ONLY way to find what is on it. At the time you are interested in the vast majority (ie almost all) of children would have been baptised. The Baptism Register of the church concerned will probably give you the names of the parents, as well as their address and the father's occupation. Sometimes, but not usually, the date of birth is added, but usually the only date given is that of baptism. The main problem with using the "baptism register" approach lies with identifying the church concerned. The whole of South Shields was originally within the Church of England parish of St Hilda's but from c1840 onwards that was sub-divided into what became many new ones. As most of South Shields is actually Westoe (which would have therefore been a better name for the town!), it would help if you had a better address than just "Westoe" for the family. Some registers, of some churches, have been transcribed and/or indexed, and microfiche copies of many of them are available for sale, from publishers such as eg the NDFHS, Lindenbridge, Northfiche, etc, etc. Try Googling for these names. Indexes to some marriage registers are on the Co Durham GENUKI pages. You will find that in practice all C of E registers from this period have been deposited in Durham County Record Office (which is the Diocesan Repository), and microfilm copies will be held by Tyne & Wear Archives Service and by South Tyneside Libraries. For churches that are not C of E (Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, etc, etc) the situation is not so straightforward, but some registers will be in Tyne & Wear Archives. Perhaps the family were of the type that might well have had a gravestone (or two!). Lists have been made for all the old S Shields churchyards that have stones (available on microfiche from the NDFHS) and for Municipal Cemeteries there are lists for Westoe Cemetery (NDFHS), Harton Cemetery (Lindenbridge) and Jarrow Cemetery (NDFHS). Other useful material includes "The Poppy Fields" (WWI casualties), Admissions to the S Shields Marine & Technical College, etc, etc, available on microfiche from Lindenbridge. What all this amounts to is that at some stage, perhaps this one, when you have exhausted what little there is on free web-sites, it becomes important to spend a little on your hobby! Geoff Nicholson