Family Historian User Group

Unlike later census the 1841 does not give the place of an individuals birth.  It just shows Y or N for whether the person was born in 'that' county.  In this case its County Durham.

Myself and two 2nd/3rd cousin researchers are looking for a common ancestor but don't know where to go from here other than driving to Durham County Record Office to plough through Parish Registers (expensive).  Even then the entries of marriage/death may not give this information
Any advice please as to any on-line or other sources.[confused]

JOHN PATTERSON looking for a RICHARDSON ancestor.

ID:1029

http://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/newsearch.php

This is a pay per view site and it is not complete yet, but certain parts of the county are well covered. However 1841 census can be misleading as parts of what are now Northumberland were then North Durham, e.g. Bedlingtonshire, Norhamshire and Islandshire (Holy Island and surroundings).

Another place to look if they were coal miners is http://www.dmm.org.uk/names/misc_g.htm
and for a general forum there is
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/

Hope that helps

Thanks for this.
We have used http://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/newsearch.php but does this work when he was born before 1837? He is our g-g-grandfather and seems to have been born in 1799. The 1841 site has both him and his wife as being 20 years old although ages on the 1841 census should be treated with great caution. He was certainly much older than 20. His wife had been previously married and had two children to her 1st husband. They married on 19 Dec 1840. We have a certificate of marriage.

He probably died before 1851 as his wife is shown as head of the household as a widow and a pauper.

As he can see we know a deal about him but not where he was born, We know his father's name as shown on this marriage certificate but we cannot go further as we do not know from where they came.

Yes he was a miner at West Auckland, (The village was later to win the football World Cup).
I have surfed the Durham Mining Museum web site for general background to these times I but missed this link.

I will also try the http://www.rootschat.com/forum/ link

Once again IreneB, thank you.

Has anybody else any suggestions please?

Have you tried the searcgh facility on the Mormons site at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/ ... search.asp

You know his name and that of his father. You also know an approximate date within twenty years either way of when he was born, so enter all these details into the relevant boxes and hit search.

You should get a list of all Birth/christenings (That the mormons know about) of people with that name and fathers name over a 40 year time span.

Ok if his names Johns smith and his father was John as well you may get hundreds of returns but if it is a little more unusual you should get only a few.

Its not hard then to look at the places and find the parish record you are looking for.

If you dont understand what Im trying to describe then let us know the details and I will try doing the search for you

Thank-you to you, David Lewis for this suggestion which I have followed.  Unfortunatly, the Mormon database doesn't confirm his marriage for which we have a certificate, UNLESS
1) The Census entry is incorrect and he was born in County Durham.
2) He was previously married and the IGI is showing this earlier marriage.  This possibility requires our further consideration.
3) Both 1) and 2) together.
Thank you again