Hi Geoff I was just about to post on this but note your mention of the PRs starting in 1609 >From Genuki on Stanhope is :- Church Records "The register dates from 1595." [From History, Topography and Directory of Durham, Whellan, London, 1894] The Parish Registers for the period 1609-1974 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/St). And from Phillimores :- Under copies of regs not at Soc Gen 1595 - 1812 (which somewhat contradicts the item under Copies of Registers at the Soc Gen 1607 - 1837) >From the above, what happened (if anything) to the 1595 to 1609 PRs ? Am I reading Phillimores correctly? Best wishes Nivard Ovington, in Cornwall (UK) > I've just checked on the starting date of Stanhope (St Thomas) parish > registers. It was 1609! That means that the baptisms of the people you > seek > will NOT be recorded in the registers at all. Unless they were of > sufficient > standing to be mentioned in other documents (Wills, Halmote Court > Records, > other Court Records, etc), then you are unlikely to be able to go further > back > with them. Perhaps you should be checking the registers of neighbouring > parishes, in the hope that they had really originated elsewhere. > > I would be interested in knowing the evidence you have about the birth > dates of all those people. Were they just a likely guess? The only way > to > conduct proper research is never to assume anything at all that you have > not > been able to find evidence for. > > Geoff Nicholson