Genealogy Chat

Matt Thanks for that, will have a look later Gwyneth You're not alone! My Dad keeps going on about not being able to get married in church unless you were baptised so she must have been but not sure whether that has any truth to it! Will keep looking....! Lou

It's good to hear that I'm not alone in searching for a missing baptism. There was only one family of the right surname having children baptised in the village where my GG grandfather says on census that he was born c. 1813. They even have a nice gap between children baptised 1811 and the next shown 1816,.... but what about Henry? I've searched the parish registers on fiche, -but no Henry. Even the occupation of blacksmith was continued and Christian names were similar in both their's and Henry's families but I just can't find the link.

Ihave a copy of the third edition of Phillomore's parish register index which lists all english parishes that were in existence pre 1832 by county and where the parish records are currently stored. it also lists the dates that the records went back to. If that kind of info is of use to anyone mail me and I would be happy to check Clive

Thank you Lyla and Brenda for making me feel MUCH better! I actually can't find baptisms for her sibs either so I'm hoping that means they were just 'done' at a church that hasn't agreed to have their records filmed and I might be lucky with the actual registers. Problem is no idea WHERE other than Mum gives the London addie on the birth cert (her parents are from Harwich so assume she was either visiting them and gave birth or planned to give birth there for whatever reason cos it's her folks addie my ggrandmother was born at!) and the family are in Marylebone in 1881 albeit at a different address. Anyone know how to find out which churches are near a certain addie???? Lou

Parishes are subdividing like amoeba at this period. There are also nonconformist chapels, those who believe in adult baptism..... There have been over one hundred places of worship in Croydon. Not all at the same time, but enough to make research very difficult.

Exactly! Or not at all! Think I'll file this one under 'To Do' for now and come back to her at a later date! Lou

So she could have been baptised in Harwich, or in Marylebone or at a church somewhere in between! nell

Thanks Nell Both her parents were baptised and all her own subsequent children were (all C of E from what I can gather) so maybe I'm just unlucky. I've checked BVRI and IGI and there's nothing, but I know that neither are complete and some churches didn't give permission for the records to be filmed and I'm not exactly sure where she would have been baptised if she was. She was born and registered in Harwich, Essex, but on the birth cert her mother gives a Marylebone address as hers. Lou

Lou I think people generally were baptised, but I have been unable to find a baptism for my great-grandmother in Cambridge, nor for any of her children, including my grandmother. Perhaps your relie was a Catholic/non-conformist? Some family history societies do baptism indexes for their area. nell

This is probably a very stupid question but was baptism the 'norm' in the late 1800's or was it just as normal for a child not to be baptised? I'm wondering whether my ggrandmother wasn't baptised or whether I'm just unlucky in that WHERE she was baptised isn't online? Thanks Lou