Missing baptisms in Kirkburton/Holmfirth

[DigleyMill]

Can anyone help me locate some missing baptisms from 1810-1829 in the Holmfirth area?

They relate to the children of my 3x ggf, a Joseph Sandford, born 20 Feb 1786, baptised at Lydgate Chapel, and married to Hannah Smith 25 Dec 1806, Kirkburton.

The couple had 8 children over the period 1807-1829, but I have only been able to trace baptisms for two of them (Samuel, 25/4/1807, and Tedbar, 10/07/1811, both at Holmfirth Wesleyan Chapel).

The "missing" 6 are:
John, born abt 1809
Jonathan, born abt. 1817
Martha, born abt. 1820
William, born 03/01/1821
Nathan, born abt. 1824
Ann, born abt. 1829

For part or all this time the couple were living at Ryecroft, near to Scholes.

I have checked all the records I know of which could be relevant: Holmfirth church, Kirkburton All Hallows, Lydgate chapel, Holmfirth Wesleyan, Lane Independent, and Hepworth/Jackson Bridge Wesleyan (mostly using the transcripts/indexes published by Huddersfield & District Family History Society). Plus the full set of West Yorkshire parish records now online at ancestry.co.uk.

I'm not aware of any other churches or chapels in this district which might have been used for baptisms around that time.

Has anyone any ideas or suggestions, please??

[bykerlads]

I found the West Yorks records on An**y a great boon- they came up with entries I'd missed even after many hours looking at fiche in Meltham Rootcellar.
It's always possible your family did not baptise all their children.
Or they may have been done as a "job lot", all together when they were older children.
Living at Scholes, they wouldn't normally use churches which belonged to Almondbury, but it's worth a look.
Also, St John's, Upperthong, though I'm not sure when it was built.
Good luck!

[DigleyMill]

Thanks for the response.

St John's church Upperthong was built 1846-7, so is too late.

I agree about the West Yorks records on ancestry, that thay are tremendously useful, but I have also found that the indexing (eg transcription of surnames) is appallingly bad in some places, especially for some burials which are recorded as baptisms!

So it's really worthwhile going through the individual images, and I've found some useful missing information this way.

Unfortunately, it hasn't helped with these particular baptisms.

My Sandford ancestors were a bit varied about which churches/chapels they used for baptisms (possibly using just the nearest one for convenience), but they do seem to have been pretty good at actually doing the baptisms, so I do think these will exist somewhere.

I've just discovered that one of the children may have been born at Leeside about 1824 (between Scholes and Jackson Bridge) - according to an 1861 census record - so I think the Jackson Bridge Wesleyan Chapel would have been the most likely option. However, the baptisms are mssing from the HDFHS booklet, and I'm wondering if the chapel's records might not have been all that complete?

Has anyone looked at the film/fiche of Jackson Bridge chapel baptisms and does it look complete?

[bykerlads]

Could Sandford have been mis-read/transcribed?
I notice variations appear- Sandiforth, Stanniforth etc?

[DigleyMill]

Thanks, but I've looked for all possible combinations, including Staniforth which would appear later in the alphabetical listing.

I should probably try asking at the Root Cellar, or viewing the original registers on fiche, but don't live in West yorkshire so it isn't convenient. And I doubt if the HDFHS transcipts would have missed anything out as I've always found them very accurate.

I'm hoping that someone may know of another chapel that was performing baptisms in this area at around that time.

[bykerlads]

Just wondering if you might get a clue from Burial records- there are "gaps" in the list of children, in the sense that in those days babies tended to arrive at 2-year intervals.
You might find that a child born between Tedbar and Jonathan died. Maybe there was a baby or 2 even between the last 3.
If you found where any infant burials took place, it would point to the baptisms?
Another idea- I have examples in my family where the arrival of the Census Man in 1841 seems to have provoked a flurry of late baptisms, as if folk wanted to make sure everything was "in order" before the Important People came to the house!! I can imagine that ordinary folk didn't quite understand what the census was all about and were fearful of being found to be in the wrong in some way.
Were your Sandfords linked to the Barbers and Beardsalls at this time? These are real old Holmbridge names, maybe try there?