Birth v Baptisms

[Jean Price]

Hello All,
I have two records from ScotlandsPeople labelled Births. They are from Irvine in 1805 and 1808.
Does this mean the children were not baptised, or have I missed a record?
Thank you,
Jean

[Rosinish]

I'm no expert but if a birth was recorded back then I would expect it would have been in the OPRs i.e. a baptism would have occurred.

I have no Scottish births/baptisms myself as far back as that sadly (well not with paperwork attached) 

Annie

[GR2]

The children would have been baptised. Have you seen the original entries to see exactly how they are worded? Sometimes the date of birth and baptism are both given, sometimes only one of them, usually just the baptism. Does the entry mention the names of witnesses to the baptism?

It is the same with marriages. Mostly what is given is the date the couple told the session clerk that they intended to marry. Sometimes the actual date of marriage is given, sometimes both.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Hello All,
I have two records from ScotlandsPeople labelled Births. They are from Irvine in 1805 and 1808.
Does this mean the children were not baptised, or have I missed a record?
Thank you,
Jean

Statutory birth registration didn't start in Scotland till 1855, so the information has to have come from church baptism records. But you should know from the type of search that you selected. Was it stat records or church records?

[Jean Price]

I have printed out both pages and both are labelled - "Old Parish Register Births"

In the actual copy they read
19 Mary Brown Dau to And Brown and Janet Shields
and
20 Elizabeth Brown Dau of Andrew Brown & Janet Shields

All the entries on both pages are as basic as that.
Perhaps I should contact ScotlandsPeople as it would be good to have sponsors' names - which might provide clues.

Thank you
Jean

[Forfarian]

If that is all that is on the handwritten page of which you have an image, then that is it. There is no point in contacting SP or anyone else because there is no more recorded information for them to have.

As for whether the records relate to births or baptisms, you would need to look at the top of the page for clues. I'd expect them to be dates of baptism, because they are church records and it was the baptism rather than the date of birth that mattered to the church, but sometimes, especially if the baptism was not recorded at the time, but only added later, the parents would know the date of birth but might have forgotten the date of baptism.

[Jean Price]

Thank you Forfarian,

It seems I have the births - and I will not complain because at least I have something.
Thank you too for the remark about contacting SP.

Jean