Durham Records Online

[Katie Bee]

Durham Records Online is free to search the indexes, then pay to view the record.

I have found it useful to search, but have not paid to view the records.
The records include some parish records, marriage bonds, cemetery records and census records.

It has a section on occupations.
Which shows the top 50 occupations in County Durham for the 1841-1891 censuses, Coal Miner came out top or near the top in all the censuses. There is also a list of some unusual occupations in County Durham, where only one person in County Durham was recorded with each of these occupations for example Artificial Fruit Maker, Aerated Mineral Water Bottler, Hawker of Armchairs!

There is also a section about Miners explaining the Miners' bond and how it can help amateur genealogists with their research.

 

[TriciaF]

I've used Durham Records Online for many years now. In the early days when there weren't so many online records I found it invaluable as visiting the records office was never an option. Even more recently I have found it very good as there is often a lot more information which has been copied from the parish record than is shown on ancestry or findmypast and lots of records have been transcribed which, as far as I know, aren't online anywhere else. There's a lot of attention to detail in the transcription. In my opinion, if you have ancestors from this area it is well worth checking out this site.

 

[peter]

Money-saving tip: FamilySearch has a lot of Bishop's Transcripts for Durham, and whilst they haven't been transcribed or indexed yet, if you can locate the entry you're seeking at one of the other sites it shouldn't be too difficult to find.

 

[trebor]

I have found so many records for my family it has probably cost me quite a bit - but much less than the cost of visiting the Durham office and far quicker!
There is always more detail than on other sites and if the record is updated (and they are updated / corrected regularly) you can view it again at a later time at no extra cost.
An excellent site and a visit is well recommeneded as well as joining the mailing list for updates.

 

[BettyC1]

I recently found this website after finding many Northumberland and Durham records from the freereg.uk.org website (which was wonderful to use - could sort columns after finding entries). Anyway, somehow I found this Durham Records Online website. I searched for an ancestor's record that I had already found thru freereg. Thinking I might get more information, I joined and paid for 4 records - I really don't mind helping out a site that seems worthwhile. I didn't get anymore information. However, I signed up for the site's offer of making contact with anyone else who had viewed the same record. I got an email from someone who had! Even though we can't figure out if we're related, most likely we are, just very far back. Sort of similar to the concept of the Lost Cousins website but without the safety measure of not making contact by regular email till both parties want to. So I think this ability might make the site useful to someone who can't possibly travel to the counties. Also, they send updates on records that have been added to the site. If I ever find someone researching any of my relatives thru this website, it will be well worth the money.