Baptised twice - on same day!

[Brentor boy]

If the parents were who I think they were ( yet to be confirmed), they were both Irish, and I have traced their possible Catholic marriage in Dublin.

I did wonder if the lack of a convenient Catholic presence in Wales caused them to compromise their faith.

Just too many unanswered questions to form any firm conclusions on this one. I guess I'll just have to leave it hanging.

[HannahR]

I found this on a Methodist Church website:

"According to the Methodist Worship Book, baptism (or Christening) marks entry into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, of which the Methodist Church is part. "

Maybe this explains it? I would check to see if St. John's was an overseeing church if that makes sense.

Hannah

[Brentor boy]

Thanks, that's interesting. I'll follow it up and see if it leads anywhere.

[JohninSussex]

I found this on a Methodist Church website:

"According to the Methodist Worship Book, baptism (or Christening) marks entry into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, of which the Methodist Church is part. "

Maybe this explains it? I would check to see if St. John's was an overseeing church if that makes sense.

Hannah

All that phrase means is that the Methodists are part of the worldwide Christian community.  It certainly doesn't mean they are or were subservient in any way to the Church of England.

[Brentor boy]

Thanks, John.

I understood the two churches to be independent  of each other, which is why I was confused by  reference to the baptisms appearing to be  in the records of both.

[Old Bristolian]

As I understand it, baptism is a universal rite accepted by all denominations (who baptise infants). It need not even be performed by a cleric. That makes it odder that two different churches would be asked to baptise. Could it be that the parents attended either church (strange if they were Catholics) and wanted the child to be "accepted into the congregation" of both to hedge their bets?

[JohninSussex]

As I understand it, baptism is a universal rite accepted by all denominations (who baptise infants). It need not even be performed by a cleric. That makes it odder that two different churches would be asked to baptise. Could it be that the parents attended either church (strange if they were Catholics) and wanted the child to be "accepted into the congregation" of both to hedge their bets?

Unless you actually have original records (i.e. images) for both baptisms, I would think it far more likely that it's a glitch in the online system, rather than that there were genuinely two events at separate churches on the same day.  If we were discussing Family Search that would be a pretty definite conclusion because of the origins of their records; I'm more surprised if it's FreeREG but don't know enough about their systems.

[HannahR]

According to Genuki [not sure how reliable it is] there are two parishes St. John the Evangelist. St. Mary and St. David in Brecon. This tells you a little bit about St. John Parish http://www.blfhs.co.uk/index.php/parishes/parishes-a-b/brecon-st-john. You can find more about it http://www.streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?X=303750&Y=229687&A=Y&Z=120&lm=1. It looks like from the maps that Llanfaes Tabernacle fell under the St. John the Evangelist Parish.

I could be wrong though. It may be worth contacting a family history society from the area to see if they have any insight.

Hannah

[JohninSussex]

Hi,

I just looked on FreeREG and yes you are right, Sarah, John and Joseph Smith are all shown baptised in both places.

So are Henry Jones, Mary Williams and Elizabeth Williams -  three random names that appear under Llanfaes Tabernacle.  So it seems likely that all baptisms recorded at the Tabernacle are also on FreeREG under St John's.