RootsChat.Com

General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Davedrave on Sunday 16 July 23 19:54 BST (UK)

Title: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: Davedrave on Sunday 16 July 23 19:54 BST (UK)
I have just come across what is the most informative parish record I have yet seen. The 1811 entry from Stapleford, Hertfordshire, gives the date of birth as well as baptism, the mother’s maiden name, and notes that the child was the sixth born to his parents (something that even civil registration doesn’t note). If the father’s occupation had been included (something I fortunately know from 1813) it would have hit the jackpot.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: Top-of-the-hill on Sunday 16 July 23 20:43 BST (UK)
  I found a similar thing in a parish I am interested in, except for the 6th child bit. A new rector in 1806 entered mother's maiden name and child's birth date. Unfortunately the new registers in 1813 put a stop to it, except for odd notes.
   I wonder if this was something other clergy were doing at that time?
 
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: coombs on Sunday 16 July 23 20:56 BST (UK)
The Dade registers tended to give more info, and the Barrington registers 1798-1812 for Durham and Northumberland. Through this I was able to prove a suspected Scottish link in my tree, and another one was from near the Yorks/Lancashire border and moved to Cockfield in Durham.

Not sure if the Dade registers included parishes in Hertfordshire. I doubt Dade covered Suffolk but several Suffolk parishes in 1790-1837 gave mothers maiden name. I struggled to find a marriage for William Mayhew and Eliz Bridges (as her mmn was given in her children's Hacheston baptisms, as was all other couples baptising children at the time in Hacheston) but it turned out Elizabeth had been married before, so William Mayhew wed her when she was using her previous married name.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: JenB on Sunday 16 July 23 22:03 BST (UK)
I have just come across what is the most informative parish record I have yet seen. The 1811 entry from Stapleford, Hertfordshire, gives the date of birth as well as baptism, the mother’s maiden name, and notes that the child was the sixth born to his parents (something that even civil registration doesn’t note). If the father’s occupation had been included (something I fortunately know from 1813) it would have hit the jackpot.

As Coombs has said, such information was standard for Barrington era registers in the Diocese of Durham, 1798 - 1812. Those of us with ancestors in the north east has reason to be very grateful to Bishop Shute Barrington who insisted that this amount of detail was entered in the baptism registers in his Diocese.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: fiddlerslass on Monday 17 July 23 08:11 BST (UK)
Also sometimes if you are very lucky, the Barrington registers include the name of the child's maternal grandfather.  ;D
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: JenB on Monday 17 July 23 09:07 BST (UK)
Also sometimes if you are very lucky, the Barrington registers include the name of the child's maternal grandfather.  ;D

Yes, I've had a couple of those.  :D
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: BumbleB on Monday 17 July 23 09:57 BST (UK)
Dade Registers - as well as the three Yorkshire Ridings, York and the Ainsty, Dade covered

Cheshire - Alsager, Macclesfield and Witton
Devon - Uplyme
Essex - Moreton
Lancashire - Aldingham, Ashton in Makerfield, Blowith, Hawkshead, Hindley, Lowick, Rufford, Satterthwaite
Nottinghamshire 0 Beeston, Coddington, East Stoke, Finningley, Mansfield, Sutton Bonington, Syerston, Teversal
Surrey - Chertsey

Added - the number of Yorkshire parishes covered -

Ainsty - 14
York - 23
East Riding - 46
North Riding - 33
West Riding - 42
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: Davedrave on Monday 17 July 23 10:48 BST (UK)
That’s interesting about Chertsey. I have some records from the late C18th to early C19th, but they are no different from the previous, none-too-informative ones. I wonder what time period these records cover?

Dave :)
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: BumbleB on Monday 17 July 23 12:30 BST (UK)
Looking at the images for Chertsey baptisms, the "Dade-type" entries only appear from January 1809.

Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: Davedrave on Monday 17 July 23 12:40 BST (UK)
Looking at the images for Chertsey baptisms, the "Dade-type" entries only appear from January 1809.


Thanks, I hadn’t got any events here in the 1809-1813 period, so missed seeing them.

Dave :)
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: Old Bristolian on Monday 17 July 23 14:04 BST (UK)
The parish register for baptisms from Henstridge in Somerset are very full for the period 1802-1812. The incumbent not only gives the maiden names of the mother, but the names of the grandparents, their abode and the grandfathers, occupations! It helped me go back one more generation and saved an enormous amount of searching.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: coombs on Monday 17 July 23 21:52 BST (UK)
Also sometimes if you are very lucky, the Barrington registers include the name of the child's maternal grandfather.  ;D

Yes I have also seen that as well. My ancestor's sister's baptism said she was the daughter of William Mason, a native of Dent, Westmoreland and Anne daughter of Joseph Hetherington of Weardale. Westmoreland is now Cumbria, as is the parish of Dent now in Cumbria but in the 1700s it was still in far North West Yorkshire, near the Westmoreland border. Also a part of Lancashire sticks out towards Dent and is only about 2 or so miles away.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: melba_schmelba on Tuesday 18 July 23 11:15 BST (UK)
See also my thread: "Amazing info on marriages in early 1800s giving insight into migration to London" where the vicar gave birthplaces of spouses in the register of St. Mary, Lewisham, then in Kent, now in South London, which revealed people from all over the country, but particularly, Wales :)

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=850188.0
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: coombs on Tuesday 18 July 23 22:11 BST (UK)
See also my thread: "Amazing info on marriages in early 1800s giving insight into migration to London" where the vicar gave birthplaces of spouses in the register of St. Mary, Lewisham, then in Kent, now in South London, which revealed people from all over the country, but particularly, Wales :)

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=850188.0

I remember that. Also part of Marylebone gave birth counties in 1841 for people not born in Middlesex. Close but no cigar for my ancestor who lived in another part of Marylebone, who said not born in county and died in Feb 1851 just weeks before the 1851 census.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: Top-of-the-hill on Tuesday 18 July 23 22:32 BST (UK)
  Going back to my comment - reply1 - it does almost seem as if there was some sort of movement among clergy to put more detail in the birth registers for a few years leading up to 1813.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: jackella on Wednesday 19 July 23 10:11 BST (UK)
A quick google Dade Parish Registers gives a little more information.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: JAKnighton on Wednesday 19 July 23 22:26 BST (UK)
In some parts of Italy, marriage records required the bride and groom to provide the details of their christening, and if either of their fathers were deceased, they also had to describe when and where he died.
Title: Re: If only all parish records were as informative as this…
Post by: jimbo50 on Friday 21 July 23 17:43 BST (UK)
Whilst looking for a baptism of my Gt x 4 Grandmother in 1785 Portsmouth. A register from a Baptist church was a revelation. The ministers there recorded Father, Mother, Persons present, Date and Place of Birth (Transport Ship's name, and position, in some cases) Fathers rank, Regiment, and often details of what the regiment was engaged in. He also included, which I researched, and found to be current American War of Independence propoganda. He went as far as calling one father's senior officer a despot.(I hope none of them returned to read the entries as he would have been in serious trouble) . I had a couple of Chertsey Baptisms, 1830s, they were quite sparse, I must look again.