I know we have been here before but following a successful visit to Durham to look at property transactions in the Halmote Court Records of the University I wanted to recommend this archive to anyone who may have ancestors who have held land in County Durham.
These records are a bit like wills from the family history perspective as they often spell out family relationships. In my case I was able to confirm the identity of my earliest ancestor since his eldest son and four granddaughters were named in the record when he was admitted to the tenancy of land at Stockton-on-Tees.
You need to have an idea of the place where your family occupied land and ideally approximately when they did so. At present it is not possible to do a comprehensive search online or at the library (unless you have weeks to spare!). However it is worth looking at the website for early records (pre 1720 approx) where you can do a surname search by township where the property is located.
The library's website is at
www.dur.ac.uk/library then make your way to Archives and Special Collections and look for Halmote Court Records.
The easiest way to get to the Halmote Court Records is to go to
http://flambard.dur.ac.uk/dynaweb/guides/ascguide.
A page headed "Table of contents for A guide to the Archives and Special Collections at Durham University Library" will come up.
Click on " Administrative and Ecclesiastical Archives"
On the next page click on "Durham Bishopric Estates, Halmote Court Records"
Near bottom of this page there is a para headed DHC 2. Click on "online version" and on the next page that comes up click "Original surrenders".
You can then click the Division and then the township you are interested in where you will see a list of "surrenders" with the surnames attached.
Hope this is of interest.
John
