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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Keith Sherwood on Sunday 31 May 09 10:58 BST (UK)
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Hi, Everyone,
On Friday afternoon, while looking for entries in Nonconformist registers for the AYRES family of Cambridgeshire at the CCRO I came across the following multiple entry of baptisms for the same family at the Ely Wesleyan Chapel on 18th June 1849:
Sarah Ann aged 15, Matilda aged 13, Matthew aged 12, William aged 10, Joseph aged 8, James aged 7, Abraham aged 5 and Elizabeth Ann aged 8 months.
I seem to remember having read somewhere of a vicar who was in charge of Manchester Cathedral in the late 18thC who conducted enormous mass baptisms on the same time, but this involved lots of different families.
But might EIGHT members of the same AYRES family constitute some kind of baptismal record at one go...?
Very best wishes, keith
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I can equal eight baptisms for one family at the same time. In May 1920 a local couple baptised 2 of their children (one aged 2 years and other aged 2 months). The parents were married in June 1920. Then, in Feb.1921 they had another 8 baptised (ranging in age from 14 years to 2 months). Local story is that the father delivered half the children to the church and told the Rector to start with them while he went for the rest of the children!
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Hi again, Aghadowey,
Those are the kind of stories that light up family history! I wish I knew the circumstances surrounding the AYRES multiple baptisms. Wonder whether the two teenagers felt awkward and didn't really want to be there; wonder whether the 8-month-old bawled...
keith
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Hello
An old post I know, but I have just picked up on it. I too have found multiple baptisms, whilst researching my family tree and was wondering why it was done.
I would have thought that due to the high child mortality rate, they would have had there little ones baptised asap.
Am I being particularly dim here?
Was it a question of cost.
Auntieteabag
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Sad if you think that somewhere out there, someone might have on their tree that a couple baptised octuplets...
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Hello Ayashi
Sorry i don't understand your reply.
I was just wondering why people waited a few years and then had several children baptised at the same time.
Auntieteabag
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I was half joking. Sometimes you get trees where people assume that because several children were christened on the same day, they must be twins or even triplets or more!
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Have a look at this link which suggests that not all parents bothered to have their children baptised as infants because so many died at a young age - also that the cost was often beyond the means of the working poor.
http://www.genealogyintime.com/GenealogyResources/Articles/a_date_guide_to_English_genealogy_part1_page03.html
I do a lot of transcribing of baptism records for an online parish clerks project and I've come across many examples where a "batch" of a family's children of different ages are baptised on the same day. I've never seen a batch of 8 though but certainly 3 or 4.
I always thought that there was no charge for a baptism but maybe I'm wrong on that.
Malcolm
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Good to see this old thread chugging into life after a pause of over five years. And very interesting the comments you make, Malcolm...
I really don't know the answer to the baptism charge thing - someone will know for sure here on Rootschat, and I expect they'll come on to tell us. I really ought to know how much the C of E charges for a baptism in a church now, and how it compares with a Registry Office one...
Keith
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I really ought to know how much the C of E charges for a baptism in a church now, and how it compares with a Registry Office one...
Keith
Registry Offices do not baptise children- think you mean birth registration? Births have to be registered within a certain time and there is no charge for the registration itself. It is copies of the birth certificate that have to be paid for.
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https://www.churchofengland.org/weddings-baptisms-funerals/fees.aspx
I suspect the only fee regarding the baptism would be for a certificate of the event
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4. How much does a Christening service cost?
The good news is that a Christening service is free. There may be costs for your family party afterwards, for gifts, or for christening robes, but the church service is free. [Occasionally parents need a certified copy of the entry in the register. In 2014 this will cost £12]
https://www.churchofengland.org/weddings-baptisms-funerals/baptism/christening-faqs.aspx
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Not a multiple baptism for siblings. However, I do have a triple baptism for children, where 3 siblings each had an offspring baptised on the same day.
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One possible reason for not baptising children showed up in this parish register note posted here a few weeks ago:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=702456.msg5454120#msg5454120
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Aghadowey,
Thanks very much for putting me right on all that - a bit of a senior moment with the baptism thing instead of birth registration!
And thanks very much for that very entertaining link to "What a Swell Party…etc." on that other thread, Galium…
Keith
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Two options spring to mind, one "the great Conversion" for the whole family (which did happen), the other is access to poor relief from the church - where only believers were accepted. I am sure I saw this situation on a recent "Who do you think you are?" genealogy of the famous type TV programme, Family access to the Church poor house. Is that a possibility?
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Thanks for the replies everyone, the idea of the cost of entertaining family and friends had not occurred to me.
The idea that they did not have them baptised because so many died young also had not occurred, as I had assumed the opposite, that they would want to have them baptised because they died so young.
You live and learn
Thanks again
Auntieteabag
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I have attended a multiple family baptism held on an Easter Saturday night in the 1980's
The family were joining the Roman Catholic Church.
Both parents and their 3 children were Baptised, both parents were also Confirmed.
The children has sponsors Godparents, the adults did not.
I was there to attend Mass totally unaware that this special ceremony was going to occur during Mass.
The family were not from our Parish.
A night to remember for sure.
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we baptised our four daughters, including twins, born between 1980 and 1985 in England on the same day in Belgium in 1988; I am English and my wife Belgian. The parish priest was from Africa and the second priest whom we invited to the ceremony and who had baptised my wife many many years before, was a Jesuit. It was a meeting of many minds in happiness.
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Falcybe,
What a splendid, harmonious story!
Keith
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:)
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i had a family of mine baptise 5 children in one go, they went on to baptise the next four a few weeks after the birth. They had just moved from one parish to another so perhaps it was to ensure the children could get poor relief if needed.
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[Occasionally parents need a certified copy of the entry in the register. In 2014 this will cost £12]
I wonder if there is a difference in Scotland/England/Ireland/Wales regarding baptisms & cost for the register entry?
My whole family were all baptised (different times) 1961 - 1972 same R. C. Church but each birth cert. on the back/reverse had an ink stamp with Church name, the Priest wrote the date & signed his name.
I believe Churches couldn't/can't charge but did/do accept donations?
I think where families were not "well off" the Priest still had to perform the baptism without a donation?
Annie.
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There's an entry in the Ballymena register that says (if memory serves):
"The children of Roger Casement of HarryVille were born on the following days, viz:"
It then lists no fewer than eleven names, finishing with the baptism of the twelfth.
Admittedly, it doesn't specifically state that the other eleven were baptized with her, but I like to picture them all lined at the font in order of height.
Sadly, both the youngest and her mother died within a few days.
Of course the Mormons, and Ancestry in their wake, have transcribed all the dates as baptisms.
I don't think transcribers ever actually read what they're transcribing (see also Mareanna's recent post).
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I've got two incidences of children being baptised in a "job lot".
One in 1851 where it looks as if the mother took all 6 children, some seemingly illegitimate, to a neighbouring village to be christened, shortly before the census-man was due to visit.
The other when my grtgrandparents seem to have had their brood of 12 done in two separate lots.No idea why - maybe too busy to get them done individually ?
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I have 2 lots , 1 in 1850 in Wiltshire. 3 on the same day, now they were either triplets or the place of abode may have meant the family didn't get into the parish much. Abode: Melksham Forest
Another lot baptised 3 before boarding the ship to Australia. The assumption being they were concerned about arriving either in heaven or Australia as ungodly
Many reasons why people delay
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My best is 5 at one go - actually OH's family.
The oldest one had been baptised previously shortly after birth in a Non conformist chapel. When the 5 children were baptised in 1827 it was in the local C of E church. Their ages ranged from 13 down to 4 years old at baptism. The parents had their 6th and last (known) child in 1831 and never had him baptised. But he got himself baptised as an adult shortly before his marriage.
I can understand the mass baptism if the parents suddenly decided to change to C of E but would have thought they would have the subsequent child baptised fairly soon.