Mother missing from baptism record

[snowball]

Hi - I'd be interested to hear views on this baptismal record from 1814 - it's from the Durham Bishop's Transcripts (St Hilda, South Shields) and features Elizabeth Williams, who I'm fairly confident is my 3x g-grandmother. But why is the mother missing? I'm inclined to think that it's down to incomplete record-keeping rather than a single-parent situation. I've included a couple of adjoining entries, for comparison.

I think the mother would be Cecilia Williams (nee March) who has been christening children with Joseph Williams, mariner, at the same church for the previous 14 years. There's a burial for a 39-year-old Cecilia Williams in May 1814 ie three months after Elizabeth's baptism.

Separate question: Elizabeth Calvert (nee Williams) married Thomas Snowball in 1843 (her father Joseph Williams, mariner). I can find her in 1851 census and later, but not in 1841, when she would have been a Calvert (she m George Calvert in Feb 1837). Can anyone spot her in 1841?

1851: HO107/2393/422
Hetton le Hole

Thomas Snowball 38  S Shields
Elizabeth Snowball 38  S Shields
George Calvert 14 b  S Shields
Thomas Snowball 10  S Shields
Mary Snowball 7 S Shields
Joseph V Snowball 5 Easington Lane
William Snowball 11 months Easington Lane

Many thanks
Rob

[sirsimon]

Odd that a mother would be absent, its usually the father in the case of illegitimacy or otherwise. Perhaps the mother did not want to be recorded, I am not sure, this is the first time I have seen such an occasion.

Sorry I couldn't be more help

[pinefamily]

Do you have access to the transcripts, or do you just have that page? Are there any other entries with just a father? The reason I ask, BT's are notorious for lacking the same data as PR's. Bad record keeping as you say, and the onerous task for the minister or clerk to write out a second copy (sometimes in a hurry), are just two possible reasons the mother's name is missing. Have you checked the PR?

[majm]

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJWB-D2Z 
and
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NLC1-GQB
both have Joseph as her father, but no mention of her mother.  FHL film 1894143

Anything written (in pencil or otherwise) outside the margin? ..... in NSW Australia in that era, the Reverend sometimes recorded additional details in the white space in the margin to the left of the entry in the parish register.

Cheers,  JM

[clairec666]

Maybe the vicar couldn't remember the name of Joseph's wife when he wrote the register entry, and never got round to updating it...

I've hardly ever seen entries since the early 1800s with just the father entered. Earlier records often neglected to mention the mother.

[tabbey]

I agree with Claire, mislaid the name, intended to complete the entry later, but forgot.
It is a clerical error, we are all human, even clerics.

[LizzieL]

I've seen a number of registers where a space was left by the clerk to enter the mother's name and he obviously didn't get round to doing it in a number of cases. These were earlier than yours before preprinted forms were used. Where the mother was included, in may cases it was obviously later because the pen was different or ink darker or lighter and often the space left did not match the name - "Catherine" or "Elizabeth" squeezed in and "Ann" and "Mary" spread out to fit. I have wondered if the baby was baptised very soon after birth and taken to church by the father, and the mother was still recovering from childbirth and not able to attend.

[clairec666]

I have wondered if the baby was baptised very soon after birth and taken to church by the father, and the mother was still recovering from childbirth and not able to attend.

That's a good point, I hadn't thought of that.

Earlier records (1700s) sometimes say "John the son of John Smith and his wife", I got the impression the wife's name was of little importance! Even though by 1814 she was usually mentioned by name, maybe her name wasn't common knowledge to the vicar.

[JenB]

Durham Records Online has the South Shields St Hilda baptisms for this year, and according to their Parish Records page http://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/Parish_Record_Info.php their record is taken from the original rather than the BT's.

You could buy a few credits to see if a mother's name is mentioned on there - but a search of the index cross-referenced with the mother's name Cecilia gives a negative result.

If there's no mother's name on the original I'd tend to go along with what others have said assume that the omission was an administrative error.