Gofton of Monkseaton Tynemouth, anywhere in Northumberland

[csjjpm]

Lara,
  thanks for that.  Gofton is quite unusual so I reckon you are right in that they are cousins.
  It is really useful you got the church because I can see if it still exists and arrange to go and look at the records.
  Merry christmas.
Paul

[lara.j]

Occurs to me that you might not have the 1851 Census ref for the Gofton family:
HO107/2411 f259 p17 & f260 p18

Looking at Joseph's age and the birthplace that he gives then I think that the following might be relevant:

Parish of Newburn, Northumberland  (Bishop's transcripts)

Register of Baptisms in the Parish of Newburn in the Years 1805 & 1806

Joseph Gofton of Penney-hill [born] June 18th 1805 [baptised] Jany 26 - 5th son of George Gofton, Farmer, Native of Bedlington Parish by his Wife Mary Laws Native of Heddon on the Wall.

Lara  

[csjjpm]

Lara,
  which site are you a member of as I need to get a subscription ;-)
Thanks
Paul

[lara.j]

If you are talking about looking at the records of St John Newcastle.....I know that they have them on film at the Northumberland Collections Service at Woodhorn. The church would probably send you there too as the records will have been deposited.
Don't suppose that looking at the register will tell you much more than the Bishop's transcript - but there would be original signatures for both parties on that.
Looking for the marriage licence bond might be worthwhile. That is probably at the Durham Record office as I think that the bond will have been issued by that Diocese.
Not sure if they have copies of Northumberland related bonds at Woodhorn or not.

Lara

[lara.j]

Sorry - keep crossing replies!!

I am using the Family Search Record Search site where they have many Northumberland parish Bishop's transcripts available to view.
So no subscription necessary - and hours of fun to be had

You can get to this site through the normal Family Search site. Go there and then using the drop down menu at the top under "Search Records" pick "Record Search Pilot". Takes a few moments to load up.
Ignore the search boxes. Click on "Browse our record collections" below those boxes. Click Europe on the map that appears.
You are then taken to a list.......the second section down is for United Kingdom and the last item in this list is Diocese of Durham Bishops Transcripts.
You should manage OK from there  - just pick county then parish and so on.
The relevant pages for the ones I have transcribed for you if you want to look at the originals are:
Northumberland>Newcastle>St John 1830-38 page 314 of 687 and...
Northumberland>Newburn 1764-1849 page 213 of 452

Enjoy yourself!!

Lara

[lara.j]

Should have mentioned that you can save yourself quite a lot of aimless trawling  by getting relevant dates from the IGI first and then looking them up in the registers.

Doesn't help where the parish isn't covered by the IGI of course or for burials. But we can't have things TOO easy now can we??!

[csjjpm]

Lara,
  how did you know there was a Gofton entry on page 213 of 452?  Is there an index somewhere?
P.

[lara.j]

Hi,

No index unfortunately. I used the IGI via FamilySearch to look for a possible date for Joseph's birth/baptism and then guessed at a page number. Then trawled about a bit until I got the right page.
One thing you have to watch when searching these is that most BT's run from Lady Day 25th March to the following Lady Day - I think that was when the parish officials were expected to make their returns to the Diocese. So you will find events from the beginning of the year tacked on to the end of events from the previous year.
There are also gaps (usually where there is an event that I am desperate to look at! ) and most BT's cease to include marriages after the start of civil registration in 1837. Some do continue - but using the old style forms which don't include all the information that the parish register entry does.
I have found a few that do include the whole entry....which saves a small fortune in buying marriage certificates of course!
For example - if you look at the BT's for Earsdon page 946 of 1316 you will find the marriage of Robert Thompson (brother of Thomas Thompson of Whitley Hill Heads) with full details.
Also at Earsdon - 730 of 1316 - is the burial of Robert and Thomas's father in 1826. He was also called Thomas and died at a relatively young age.

As I said.......lots of trawling through pages and pages of stuff. But it's fascinating stuff!

Lara

[csjjpm]

Lara,
  thanks for explaining that.  I will look forward to the trawling ;-).
It is useful just to have them digitised.
Your help has been invaluable.
Paul