Author Topic: Two baptisms?  (Read 1439 times)

Offline GordonFindlay

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Two baptisms?
« on: Monday 08 January 18 08:06 GMT (UK) »
I have found two OPR entries for what seems to be the same child. With same parents and witnesses. These two entries differ only in the date.

This is one of them: from FreeReg, but same entries are at Scotland's People:

Field   Value
County   Angus (Forfarshire)
Place (link for place information)   Arbroath
Church name   Arbroath Vol Iv
Register type   Unspecified
Register entry number   83
Baptism date   3 Apr 1783
Birth date   1 Apr 1783
Person forename   Ann
Person sex   F
Father forename   David
Father surname   CARGILL
Father occupation   Shipmaster
Mother forename   Isabel
Mother surname   DUFFUS
Witness   
Witness   
Register note   Wit Bailie Aberdin; Thomas Mackie

In the other with the same Register number the birth date is 3 Sep 1783, and baptism 16 Sep 1783.

Any suggestions to explain this?

Slainte
Gordon
Findlay - Aberdeen, Angus
Shepherd - Angus
Cargill, Swankie, Spink  - Angus
Melvin - Aberdeen
Coull - Angus, Aberdeen
Strachan - Kincardine, Aberdeen
Steven, Steen. Stein, Dunsmore, Burt, Prentice, Maxwell, Montgomery  - Lanark

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Re: Two baptisms?
« Reply #1 on: Monday 08 January 18 08:30 GMT (UK) »
Probably an error on the part of the parish clerk. It's not unheard of.

Have you looked at the original documents?
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline GordonFindlay

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Re: Two baptisms?
« Reply #2 on: Monday 08 January 18 08:40 GMT (UK) »
The original documents are pages 27 and 32. The other entries on the two pages are quite different.

Compared with other OPRs of the period, these are models of neatness and organisation.
Findlay - Aberdeen, Angus
Shepherd - Angus
Cargill, Swankie, Spink  - Angus
Melvin - Aberdeen
Coull - Angus, Aberdeen
Strachan - Kincardine, Aberdeen
Steven, Steen. Stein, Dunsmore, Burt, Prentice, Maxwell, Montgomery  - Lanark

Offline majm

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Re: Two baptisms?
« Reply #3 on: Monday 29 October 18 08:08 GMT (UK) »
The transcriptions at Free Reg show Apr and Sep for the months. 

 :) I wonder if they are written as words or numerically .... ie 4 or 9 (so a possible mis-read). 
or
 :) Is it possible that it is the one baptism being recorded firstly in the original parish register, and then in a second register stored separately from the original ...

I notice the same transcriber for both entries at Free Reg  ;)
File line number 259  is for April
File line number 310  is for September
and there's a option for reporting an error in the data ...

https://www.freereg.org.uk/

JM
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Offline GordonFindlay

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Re: Two baptisms?
« Reply #4 on: Monday 29 October 18 19:15 GMT (UK) »
Thanks, but I'm not looking at transcriptions. The two entries occur in the original documents, with month names not numbers.

They are also from the same volume, so unlikely a duplicate copy.

Slainte
Gordon
Findlay - Aberdeen, Angus
Shepherd - Angus
Cargill, Swankie, Spink  - Angus
Melvin - Aberdeen
Coull - Angus, Aberdeen
Strachan - Kincardine, Aberdeen
Steven, Steen. Stein, Dunsmore, Burt, Prentice, Maxwell, Montgomery  - Lanark

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Re: Two baptisms?
« Reply #5 on: Monday 29 October 18 22:04 GMT (UK) »
Clerical error by the session clerk, who forgot he had already written it down. The Lethnot and Navar Parish Register is almost completely duplicated for several years, with minor variations in the detail. I expect this is much the same.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline majm

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Re: Two baptisms?
« Reply #6 on: Monday 29 October 18 22:52 GMT (UK) »
Thanks, but I'm not looking at transcriptions. The two entries occur in the original documents, with month names not numbers.

They are also from the same volume, so unlikely a duplicate copy.

Slainte
Gordon

Thanks for that clarification.   

If these were entries(for example) in the parish registers of New South Wales, Australia prior to civil registration, and both were in the one register,  I would still check both the original images and their respective transcriptions, to notice any differences/variations.   I am aware of quite a number of entries in the ** parish registers that are in fact triplicate, and some are even quaduplicate entries, some only days apart, others weeks, and some months...   The clergy and their scribes were, just like you and me, capable of making clerical errors, typos, mistakes.

Have you considered checking if the other entries before and after 'yours' have been recorded twice or more ...  :)

ADD ** NSW  (NSW - New South Wales - these parish registers include entries from the then NSW territories administered by the NSW Governors ... including South Sea Islands, New Zealand, Van Diemens Land, and of course what is now Queensland, Victoria etc... not just what is now NSW). They include transmitted records from outlying localities within the parish too.   

JM   
The information in my posts is provided for academic and non-commercial research purposes. 
Random Acts of Kindness Given Freely are never Worthless for they are Priceless.
Qui scit et non docet.    Qui docet et non vivit.    Qui nescit et non interrogat.   
All Census Look Ups Are Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
I do not have a face book or a twitter account.

Offline GordonFindlay

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Re: Two baptisms?
« Reply #7 on: Monday 29 October 18 23:36 GMT (UK) »
OK - it's a clerical error - the only one I can find - in the neatest set of OPRs of that vintage yet encountered.

Added to the list of oddities. It's a long list!

Slainte
Gordon
Findlay - Aberdeen, Angus
Shepherd - Angus
Cargill, Swankie, Spink  - Angus
Melvin - Aberdeen
Coull - Angus, Aberdeen
Strachan - Kincardine, Aberdeen
Steven, Steen. Stein, Dunsmore, Burt, Prentice, Maxwell, Montgomery  - Lanark