Unlock your family story with records from North East England

The region’s northernmost town is Berwick-upon-Tweed and due to its proximity to the Anglo-Scottish border, it has a distinctive identity. In the early 18th century, it became the site for one of the first purpose-built army barracks in Britain. The market town of Darlington, in the extreme south of the region, is noted for its rich railway heritage and linen manufacturing.

If your relatives originate from North East England, they may have fished for herring, built locomotives or worked in a linen mill. DNA analysis has shown that people from the North East have a stronger connection to ancestors from the Iron age and Roman period than most other groups in the British Isles.

The North East is home to the world’s first house to have working light bulbs installed (Underhill in Gateshead), the world’s first lifeboat (South Shields) and Causey Arch, the world’s oldest surviving single arch bridge.

Glucozade which became Lucozade, the Wispa chocolate bar and the safety match all appeared first in the North East.

Today’s North East region was created in the 1990s and now includes the metropolitan boroughs of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside and the City of Sunderland, along with the ceremonial counties of Northumberland and County Durham.