In a message dated 21/07/2004 13:18:57 GMT Daylight Time, akpak@waitrose.com writes: Hmm - unless I'm much mistaken, the county with by far the most Dade registers - and where they originated - is Yorkshire. I suppose from the near-Arctic perspective of Co. Durham <vbg> you might just about call that "midlands and south", but it's not really accurate. Seriously, though, I've seen mention of Barrington registers a few times here - please could someone tell us when were these used, and is there a list anywhere of the parishes where they are found? I know there are many Dade registers in Yorkshire, but am I mistaken in thinking that most of them are in the West Rding or in the extreme southern tip of the North Riding (what is now South Yorkshire)? I also understand that the practice spilled out from Yorkshire into other counties further south. However, if that is not so then I stand corrected. I was always brought up to believe that on the east side of England there were only two northern counties - Northumberland and Co Durham. South of them there was a sort of "no-man's land" called Yorkshire and south of that was "The South", some of which, if we want to make fine distinctions, was known to those who lived there as "The MIdlands". Then I went to school wheer they tried to tell me otherwise, but I never really believed them! I remember, when a student in Hull, putting it thus to my fellow students, from all over the country. Take a map of England and draw an east-west line through its most northerly point (just north of Berwick upon Tweed). Draw a similar east-west line through its most southerly point (The Lizard in Cornwall). Then draw two similar lines, equally spaced between them. Call the "thirds" thus produced "The North", "The Midlands" and "The South". Fair? I think so. The boundary between "The North" and "The Midlands" passes just north of Hull! If you think of Co Durham as being near-arctic, you should try working, as I did, on the north coast of Scotland. From Thurso, Inverness corresponds to "The South", Edinburgh is "The extremely deep South" and anywhere in England is almost unimagineable. As for London - forget it! Anyway: Barrington registers. These have been mentioned several times on this List recently. They cover only 1798 to 1812 (15 years or half a generation) and, having been specified by the Bishop of Durham (Shute Barrington), they are to be found in every parish in his Diocese of Durham (roughly Co Durham, Northumberland and Alston parish in Cumberland). The only anomaly is that Hexhamshire (in its old definition of the parishes of Hexham, Allendale and St John Lee, with their various chapelries etc) was a Special Jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York and so do not have detailed registers for that period. As within that region controlled by the Bishop of Durham the Barrington registers are found "everywhere", there is no need for a list of parishes where they are to be found! Geoff Nicholson 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU Long-established Professional Genealogist: ask for details of NBL/DUR family history research by THE local expert, working for YOU.