Genealogy Chat

Phoenix I agree with that assessment! Being an old hand at reading (trying to read) pre 1812 registers I can tell you that some are enough to make you weep. One which will live in my nightmares for ever, was the thrifty Vicar who at the start of his incumbency, got a sheet of paper the size of a bed sheet and carefully folded it, map wise, till it was a manageable size. Page 1 was ok. Then he refolded it. Page two wasnt actually next to page one, but he'd started, so he carried on, to page 3. Similar thing happened. He also put in people he forgot at the time, down the margins, across the top, in fact in any handily-sized gap. He reigned for over 60 years. The poor person who filmed this register got lost at about the same point I did, opened the whole thing out to its original size, and then took a series of films across the whole thing, then the reverse. Of course, the Vicar's self-made pages werent the same size as a modern film, so you get 1 and a half pages, per page, then have to find the missing other half. I was demented by the time I had finished it and I am still convinced I missed a lot. No wonder any transcriber quailed at the sight of it. OC

An awful lot of transcribers actually START in 1812. I trust my own transcriptions implicitly (lol) but if you let a volunteer loose on pre 1812 they'll miss entries out, repeat them, turnover two pages at once etc etc etc. Post 1812, in those nice Rose's registers, you can count them out and count them back. Devon has done all their marriages, most baptisms and tackling burials for the period. 1812 - 1837 is the period where there are the most transcriptions available, though format varies from county to county.

Merry I did wonder thay myself - it was incredible, the numbers of sets of triplets. Then I started to wonder if the transcriber had misread triplet for baby!LOL OC

I expect Mr and Mrs Dodman just borrowed a couple of babies from up the street to get the publicity! Merry

I was astonished, when nosing around a website someone had set up for a Liverpool Evening Paper, to find just how many TRIPLETS were born in Liverpool! At least one lot a week, it seemed, and quite a few ordinary folk got a mention too: Triplets safely born to Mrs Dodman, wife of William Dodman, lamplighter of Scroggins Back Lane. OC

I noticed the moderator at rootschat (somerset board) is compiling an alphabetical list of Somerset parish records available on-line. I am not sure of other areas. I think the marriage books started in 1757 and went through to 1837. I have the index for Bath and it does not have a gap. You do get less information as there was no space for helpful comments. Bath record office has some Georgian newspaper extracts and a marriage entry unless there was a lot of money or property involved is generally something like: Miss Jones married Mr. Smith a seven night ago at Walcott St. Swithens. Births are usually recorded for ordinary folk if it was triplets, the 25 th child or if the mother was about 63 and then only: the lady of Mr. Toogood (a prominet Bath name honestly) was delivered of her 18th child a seven night ago in Upper Weston. Deaths however get quite a bit of coverage particularly if it involved a crime or grizly accident.

I am not going to say what I was going to reply because I will get a Slap. The words just automaticaly came out of my mouth, couldn't help it!! Just goes to show what advertisments can do to you and that one is a very long time ago!! Betty

The 'black hole' occured because prior to 1812 all baptisms and burials (can't remember about marriages) were in the same book. From 1813 onwards they all had their own separate books. Margaret

Oooh, I'm already in a bad mood and now you mention THIS too!!! About 5 or 6 years ago I contacted somewhere or other (prob Bedford Family History soc) about the PR's for a parish in Bedfordshire ....I had bought fiche of the PR's up to 1812 and was looking to see if anyone had the black hole available. They said they were already being transcribed and were almost finished. As I said, that was at least 5 years ago........they are still not done........Grrrrr! Merry

we start transcripint 1800 to 1875 our selves (that way we catch all those unregistered births in the baptisums).

Jim Afraid its down to searching the actual parish registers, Margaret

I can't offer any tips here,but really need a few good ones. I need to try and connect an 1810 birth with an 1823 will to jump back two generations,but can't find the marriage or children born between 1810 and 1823. It's one of those high walls that seems to go from one end of the country to the other,and no weak spots at the minute. Glen

P.S. Anyone mentioning Cadbury's Snack gets a slap!

Mr Philimore and a lot of other transcribers of Parish Registers stopped at 1812. Civil Registration started in July 1837. That leaves a 25 year gap. What tips can we offer to bridge that gap?