Early Church Records ..... ummmmm..... I am lost for polite words .... these are no longer given their Volume references, so the "V" is no longer a way of noticing the difference between the Early Church Records and the formal compulsory civil registrations.... so
Early Church Records date from when those events were recorded in their respective Parish Registers in the decades BEFORE the NSW BDM was instituted (it commenced in 1856 !). So NSW BDM's reference numbers suggest (at least to me) that their employees will not longer EVER know (from looking at the reference nos) that the Early Church Records ARE NOT civil registrations.
I know that many reading this thread will perhaps mutter "JM is being PEDANTIC yet again" .... And, yes I am. And I make NO apology for this.
There is a huge difference between a registration of a civil "birth" and an entry in the NSW Chaplains' registers of " baptisms". The civil birth registration held by NSW BDM would have been recorded in the NSW BDM's registers at the time of that event. The Early Church Records were not handed over to the NSW BDM at the time they were recorded as the NSW BDM did not exist at that point in time. So, the Early Church Records that were eventually handed over to NSW BDM came into the NSW BDM long after they were recorded. There's plenty of well researched references to show that the Early Church Records of say baptisms that the NSW BDM holds do not always show the actual date of birth of the person being baptised. They may have been baptised as an adult, or the NSW Chaplains may have recorded a summary transmitted record from the original parish register which was not available to NSW BDM when the index was initially prepared in the 1930s.
The upgrade seems to have expunged some details ....
For example, the family name heading no longer has "Aborigine" or "Aboriginal", which of course were the words used by the clergy when recording baptisms in the pre-civil registration era (so from say 1787 to say 1856, often in the Macquarie era 1810-1821). The previous online version included these. Those Church Records that formed the basis of the index do NOT have surnames for ANY of the persons of interest, regardless of their ethnicity. So the surname was UNSTATED for the actual person being baptised. The surname of the mother was stated, and if the mother gave the clergy the name of the child's father, then that too was stated (and in NSW during the Macquarie era, this was recorded regardless of whether the parents were lawfully married to each other or not). So in that sense, the NSW BDM heading "family name" is a 20th Century expression. So instead of INCLUDING all the available information from the previous online indexes, they have EXCLUDED some, perhaps on some "politically correct" grounds.
At the moment I am trying to duplicate "Age" as a result (sometimes it WAS findable under "mother's given name")
On a positive note, I can confirm that the exact date for my parents' marriage is findable and
matches the certificate info I hold
(To find it on the online search thingy this morning) I included the reference number, (including the year) and the surnames of both my parents
Cheers, JM
