baptism lookup

[ramsayjohn]

I have a LDS ref for a windlesham baptism with virtually no information on it can anybody look it up for me please? it is Charles Ramsey 28 may 1854. at Windlesham Surry England
Thanks ramsayjohn Australia

[bdmayes]

A transcript of Windlesham bapts has the following:

21 May 1854  RAMSAY Charles (adopted son) of John & (blank)      Captain Army


Brian

[ramsayjohn]

oh my gosh. is that all?? i thought it was the son of john baptist ramsay. can you tell me how i look at that please

[bdmayes]

The information comes from a transcript of Windlesham Parish Registers published on fiche by West Surrey FHS (www.wsfhs.org).
It will be an exact copy of what appears in the original baptism register, so LDS did not get the information they have (i.e. John Baptiste) from the original register.

[dee-jay]

I suspect transcriptions, whether LDS or FHS, are merely finding aids if they do not give the No. of the entry, Abode or the Officiating Minister.

The original entry in Odiham Parish Register (Hampshire) for another RAMSAY baptism leaves the Parents' Christian names blank but gives Surname and sufficient indication of the Father's Abode, Army Rank and H.E.I.C.S. to enable likely identity to be discovered from other records.

If anybody living locally, or proposing a visit in the near future to Surrey Record Office History Centre, could please extract the Windlesham entry in its entirety, it might help to establish whether there is a link between these two children. 

 

[Valda]

Hi


If he was connected to John Baptiste Ramsay then he left a will proved 9th September 1879 proved Bristol and again at the Principal Registry 27th April 1880. The guide to wills at the top of the Surrey boards gives the information on how to obtain a copy of a will.


Regards

Valda

[dee-jay]

It will be an exact copy of what appears in the original baptism register, so LDS did not get the information they have (i.e. John Baptiste) from the original register.

I beg to differ.  I now have it on good authority that the LDS transcript is accurate with John Baptist parentage and the RAMSEY surname variant, but a third date option has been offered by the History Centre:  26th May, which happened to be a Friday.  The WSFHS index records 21st and the LDS 28th May, which were successive Sundays.  No prizes for guessing which is the more likely, but I'm reserving judgement until a photocopy arrives .....

However, it should be noted that the entry in the IGI was an extracted record for the locality [i.e. Windlesham], and was not one of the less reliable member-submissions.

[dee-jay]

I'm delighted to exonerate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.    After careful scrutiny of a photocopy of the baptism record I can confirm that their transcription is accurate in all respects.

I can see why the History Centre initially read the day as 26th but comparisons with consecutive pages show the several figure eights with an open right-side top loop, clearly distinguishable from the straight-angled back stroke of the several sixes, all written in the same hand.

As there are 3 baptisms recorded on the 28th May 1854, I assume the other two suffered a similar fate in transcription by the WSFHS, which reinforces the generally-held belief that all indexes should be treated as finding aids only.