In a message dated 17/06/2007 10:14:24 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Thomas Landers B14 may 1799 @ Gateshead, I know his father is Jacob and mother Sarah. I would like to find other siblings and Thomas marriage Elizabeth Leighton. I don't know how big Gateshead is or anything about it so it might be to big a task to ask for Ann: First, the NDFHS (Northumberland and Durham Famiy History Society) microfiche indexes to ALL marriages in (a) Co Durham and (b) Northumberland (ie two series) 1813-37 do not mention any marriage between a Thomas Landers and an Elizabeth Leighton, so it would seem possible that they married out of this region. Second, according to the IGI, Thomas' baptism was at Gateshead on 24 November 1799. His mother's maiden surname is given on the IGI as Hall. That marriage is not on the Co Durham IGI but I did notice a brother Jacob being baptised at Gateshead on 23 ugust 1795. The date of Thomas' baptism is very good news for you, because it means it was during what is called by local researchers "The Barirngton Period" (1798-1812), when very detailed entries of baptisms were made in all the registers of Church of England churches throughout Durham Diocese (which at the time included roughly Co Durham and Northumberland). Details given, apart from the mother's maiden surname, include the name(s) of the parish(es) of which each parent was a native (ie the ones in which they had been born). We are also told where the child came in the family - 1st son, 4th daughter, etc. At the time the town of Gateshead all lay in one parish - St Mary's. Later many new parishes were carved out of St Mary's as with most of our larger towns. In the case of Gateshead the first one to be formed was St John's, Gateshead Fell, in 1825. Gateshead is a large town on the south bank of the Tyne, directly opposite Newcastle, to which it is joined by a series of bridges. Famously there were "five", but the number was only one until the High Level Bridge was opened in ?1849 and if we allow for the boundary changes of the mid-twentieth century, for the Metro Bridge and the Millennium footbridge, plus some replacements, it is now ten (I am still counting the High Level Bridge, although it is currently undergoing a long-term closure - we are promised it back next year). To some extent Gateshead has always been the "poor relation" of Newcastle, but in recent years it has closed the gap considerably, and some would say it has overtaken Newcastle, with its impressive Sage Concert Hall, innovative Millennium Footbridge (that has "Gateshead, not "Newcastle" in its official name so I count it as part of Gateshead), an deven the very oldest part of Gateshead - Bottle Bank - is now graced with the Gateshead Hilton Hotel. Out of the town centre the Gateshead Stadium is a centre for international athletics meetings, as well as hosting the annual National Family History Fair, and the "Angel of the North" sculpture which greets travellers approaching Tyneside from the south on the A1 has come to be accepted as an icon of the North-East (but not by all - certainly not by me, for various good reasons). The boundary expansion of 1974 means that the modern Borough of Gateshead includes rural and semi-rural areas including pleasant villages such as Whickham and Ryton, the lower part of the lovely Derwent Valley, including the Gibside estate (National Trust) and historic Chopwell Woods. Yes, Gateshead is large. Population statistics are: 1801 8,597 1811 8,782 1821 11,767 1831 15,177 1841 19,843 1851 25,570 1861 33,589 1871 48,627 1881 65,845 1891 85,692 1901 109,888 1911 116,917 1921 125,142 1931 122,447 1941 (no census) 1951 115,017 1961 103,178 1971 94,457 These statistics are from Frank Manders' "History of Gateshead". The 19th-century boom in population was mainly due to the industrial revolution and to Gateshead acquiring a large railway depot and also becoming the centre of the local chemical trade. The decline in the mid-20th century was mainly caused by slum clearance. Very rough estimates for earlier years, given by Manders, begin with 1,670 in 1548 and include 3,135 in 1621, 7,000 c1695 and 5,490 in 1751. Geoff Nicholson