Wendy Jessup wrote: > Can anyone please advise me on the likely location of the local parish > records of St Mary's Church, Lesbury? I am interested to find out who > erected a headstone that still stands in the churchyard. It is 'In > Memoriam' to a number of members of a local family and I am fairly > sure was erected in the period 1882-1886. Would there be details of > this in the local parish council minutes, and if so, where would these > records be located? I am guessing probably at Woodhorn? Wendy Surviving records of St Mary's will be at Woodhorn as you surmise, but won't provide the information you seek. There were no Parish Councils as early as 1886 (the earliest were 1897) and they are local government bodies which have nothing whatsoever to do with the church premises or churchyard. I think you mean Parochial Church Council - but these only date from 1919. They were the successors of the Vestry - a group consisting of either any parishioner who wished to attend or, in areas with a "Closed" or "Select" Vestry, the group consisted of a self- perpetuating body called the "Four and Twenty". Anyway, be that as it may, none of this will help you because, as far as I'm aware, no official body will have a record of who erected the headstone. If the stone was erected by an established company then presumably they would have a record of the transaction, but the chances of such records surviving are small and the chances of locating and accessing it, even smaller. Brian -- Brian Pears (Gateshead, UK) http://www.bpears.org.uk/ Joint List Admin NORTHUMBRIA Genealogy Mailing List GENUKI Northumberland Maintainer