Churches of Other Denominations

The Methodist Church did not formally break away from the Church of England until the end of the eighteenth century and few Methodist registers date from that time. The records of many churches date only from the later nineteenth century. From the early nineteenth century onwards, the Methodist Church split into different groups, known usually as connexions. It is, therefore, possible to find registers for different connexions covering the same time and the same place. The Primitive Connexion, Wesleyan Connexion and United Methodist Church, the three largest of the Methodist groups, joined in 1932 to form the Methodist Church.

Neighbouring Methodist churches or chapels are grouped together in circuits and there were separate circuits for each of the different connexions. The constituents of each circuit change from time to time, so an individual Methodist church may be in different circuits at different points in its history. Baptism registers were kept for circuits and for individual churches. Many pre-1837 non-conformist, including Methodist, registers were sent to the Registrar General in 1840 and most local record offices hold microfilm copies of these register for chapels in their area.

Methodist chapels were licensed for the solemnisation of marriages in 1837, but as a registrar was required to be present the record of the marriage was held in the registrar's records. From 1898 a registrar's presence was no longer required and most Methodist marriage registers date from 1898 or later.

Methodist registers were kept less systematically than those of the Church of England and many registers have not survived. Very few Methodist burial registers exist.

The Record Office holds registers of baptisms and marriages for churches in circuits where the main church is in the present county of Durham. A series of marriage registers for closed churches in the present county is also held.

Microfilm copies of original baptism registers for the period before 1837, relating to the pre-1974 county of Durham, which are held in the Public Record Office (PRO reference RG/4), are available.

You will find our holdings on microfilm and to see them you must make an appointment.

You will find details of our holdings for each Methodist circuit/church on our website.

Many registers of non-conformist churches have been transcribed and/or indexed. You will find a list of the transcripts/indexes on our website.

You will find details of Methodist churches on the website The Methodist Church.