If she married in 1849 she was obviously born before the start of civil registration in 1837, so there will be no record of her birth as such. What you must seek, from now onwards, is the record of her baptism (and that of any ancestors born before 1837). You could seek transcripts of appropriate parish or other church registers, or else the original Norton baptism register, which is in Durham County Record Office, with microfilm copies in Cleveland Record Office, Middlesbrough. Possible publishers for Norton are (a) the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society (NDFHS - a list of publications is on their web-site at www.ndfhs.org) and (b) the Cleveland Family History Society. A cheaper alternative (but it is still a transcript and NOT the parish registers) would be to use the Bishop's Transcripts (BTs), available on the Mormon (LDS) site. The surname Williamson is found all over Northumberland and Co Durham, although it is not common anywhere. Lofthouse, however, is rare in these two counties, and is more likely to be found in Yorkshire, where there is a place named Lofthouse, and possibly Lancashire. It is probably significant that the occurrence of Lofthouse which you mention is in that part of Co Durham very close to Yorkshire (pre-1974 boundaries!). Geoff Nicholson -----Original Message----- From: J Malcouronne <[email protected]> To: northumbria <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 4:39 Subject: [NMB] William WILLIAMSON Can anyone help? My Gt Gt Grandparents. Elllen Williamson b. 1828 ? married John Lofthouse 7 June 1849 at Norton, Durham. On the marriage cert. it has her father as William WILLIAMSON (bricklayer) I haven't been able to find her birth record. I've been trying to find her parents, could they be William WILLIAMSON and Ann WILKINSON married 15 May 1827 at Norton, Durham ? .. Please remember to snip most of the earlier message before you post any reply...... Thank you! The NORTHUMBRIA FAQ page is located at http://www.bpears.org.uk/NorthumbriaFAQ/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message