Hi Just to add to Geoff's reply with some comments from the perspective of researching on this side of the world. A site with a great deal of useful information (and some marriage indexes ) is www.genuki.org.uk - not least their "Getting Started" article http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/ I would just mention that your family may not necessarily have been baptised in the Church of England - they could have been non- conformists. Methodism, for example, was strong in many Co. Durham mining communities. Prior to the beginning of civil registration, they would have had to marry in the Church of England (unless they were Jews or Quakers). Before municipal cemeteries started there were few alternatives to Church of England church yards for burial, but people were often buried a little further from home than you might expect, for all sorts of reasons, so check surrounding parishes. While most children were baptised within a few months of their birth, some families seemed to baptise their children in "batches". For all sorts of reasons which we can often only guess at (money being one of them) there can be significant differences between the dates of birth and baptism of a child. http://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/ may have transcripts available online - check their coverage. This is a pay per view site but has a good free index so you can make your mind up whether there is anything you want before you pay. I also wondered whether you were aware that you can get hold of films of church and other records through the LDS family history centres which are in most large urban centres in Australia? Their on-line film catalogue can be found at www.familysearch.org - click on the library tab & follow the links. The same tab provides a link to help you find the nearest centre. As Geoff mentioned there are images of some Bishop's Transcripts (BTs) for some records for some years (many gaps) available free on- line. Remember these are for Church of England parishes. For the BTs go to: www.familysearch.org Click on search record tab up top of page Choose record search pilot Choose "Browse our record collection" which is in small pale print in the middle of the page that comes up. The Bishop's Transcripts (BTs) have not been indexed so the search function won't bring them up. Click on Europe on the map that comes up Find the BTs under England Choose the County & then the parish you want. www.familysearch.org also has the International Genealogical Index (IGI) which you may already know about. This is a finding aid only and includes many entries submitted by individuals which are based on 'research' of varying quality. It also includes entries extracted from church records - these are more reliable but you need to use the film reference provided to order the film to check the accuracy and to get the full details - the IGI is just an index. Coverage is incomplete and can be quite limited after 1812 for this area. There is a National Burial Index project, often referred to as the NBI, run by the Federation of Family History Societies and very much a work in progress - only a small proportion of burials are included as yet. The NBI has been moved to www.findmypast.com which is a pay per view site. The NBI does not provide full details - you are then meant to go off to the relevant family history societies & buy the records from them. You could use the NBI reference to get a date & location & then go to the BTs, or order the film of the burial records, which might give you other family entries. You can buy transcripts of some records (fiche and some CDs) from the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society's e-shop - www.ndfhs.org.uk Another fiche supplier is Northfiche - http://www.jwillans.freeserve.co.uk/ I hope you are successful in finding records for the people you are looking for. If you provide names and approximate dates/locations (giving your source) someone may be able to offer specific assistance. Ingrid On 31/10/2009, at 8:07 PM, A wrote: > I am informed that birth records prior to 1837, if available, is via > parish > registers. > I am after a birth certificate (to conform parent's names) in > Houghton Le > Spring in 1836 does any one know if this is available? > If so Where from? > Thanks > Pom > > > > The NORTHUMBRIA FAQ page is located at http://www.bpears.org.uk/NorthumbriaFAQ/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORTHUMBRIA-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and > the body of the message