Durham Records - am I being incredibly dense?

[wanderingtopographer]

A lot of my research lately seems to take me up to this area, and although I'm finding some parish registers on FindMyPast and a selection of parishes on FreeReg and as pay per view on Durham Records Online, the online coverage seems to be incredibly patchy, whereas my usual area (West Yorkshire) is incredibly well covered.

Is it just me? Is there a hidden treasure trove of online parish registers / bishop's transcripts that I'm overlooking, and beyond that things like electoral rolls and land tax records? Just wondering if any other researchers work regularly in this area who can give me a little nudge in the right direction (or failing that, commiserate!)

(I am aware that in theory you can scroll through some unindexed scans on FamilySearch and am finding some Durham records this way, but every time I try to view them it tells me I can only do so by going to a FamilySearch hub or affiliated library).

I don't know about Durham but whatever area I'm researching I find it's just pot luck if the specific parish records I want are on-line. Perhaps you have been lucky so far. Best to apply for an access ticket to visit the local or county Records' Offices where they should hold all the parish records in some form or other. Good luck!

I'll commiserate with you. I have one branch of the family based in a city for 250 years with incredible digitised records; a middling branch of the family on the Isle of Man with some records; and then we have the Welsh! Even if you can find records they all have the same name and all their relatives do as well. I have four men on Anglesey with the same name, all born in the same year, in the same tiny village with no way of distinguishing them from each other because there are so few records and so I have no idea of who their parents are.

The mormons did a lot of filming of the original parish registers back in the 1940/50s from what I understand some parishes and counties were ok to let the mormons film these registers and other counties and parishes were against the idea.

This them has set the future of digital registers online to some extent, as those same registered have been used to place registers original records online. Then also comes the archives holding the parish registers now as to whether they will agree to the original registers held by the mormons going online, as they have the say so on this type of reproduction.

so for example Warwickshire was very well covered in the 1940/50s and the originals held by the mormons. The warwickshire archives went into a contract with ancestry/findmypast to put these records online, so they are available, though in some cases in a bit of a pickle. The original parish registers film 70/80 years previously were used