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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Happy Time Traveller on Saturday 13 October 18 18:44 BST (UK)
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I've come across annotations for pauper and private baptisms in registers before, but now I've seen one with an A in the margin of a baptism register for 1817. Does anyone know what this would mean?
Btw, there is the P annotation elsewhere on the page so it isn't that.
Thanks
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Adult baptism?
P, of course, would stand for Private baptism.
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It says she's the daughter of a couple who only married the previous year. The wife has an unusual,name so I think she is definitely a child. I wonder if it does mean adult and was out next to the wrong name?
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I think it is more likely to be Acceptance into the Church, after a previous private baptism.
Colin
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I think it is more likely to be Acceptance into the Church, after a previous private baptism.
Colin
It is usually "Received"
If a child is baptised privately, they ought to be brought to the Church as soon as possible to be received as members of " the flock of true Christian people". So where a private baptism is employed, there is a further rite (if the child survives) of reception into church.
The wording of the Service, in the Book of Common Prayer, is;
"We receive this Child into the congregation of Christ's flock.........."
Stan
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Thanks everyone
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On a similar topic, I recently came across the letter C in the margin against many of the entries in a burial register, 1877. Have scrolled through hundreds of pages of these and this is the first time I've seen it. Was wondering if it might stand for cremated???
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Cremation became legal in 1884, on 26th March, 1885 the first official cremation at Woking took place. See http://www.srgw.info/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html
Stan
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Ah, given that the first cremation wasn't until 1879 - and that was a horse - that'll be a No, then... I rarely make a record of who conducted the ceremony so can't check now, but maybe it stands for Curate? Although that info should also be in the end column, so there'd be no reason for a marginal entry too...
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Possibly C = consecrated ground
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Surely that goes w/o saying on a church register though?
Oh yeah, and it's also not a quick visual aid to show 'Children', as the entry I recorded was for a 39 year old woman.
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Catholic ?
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Is there a secondary church attached to it? - sometimes they seem to share a register
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Is there a secondary church attached to it? - sometimes they seem to share a register
No, it's just Kelloe St Helen in Co Durham. IIRC, there's an additional register called Kelloe (Thornley) from when parish boundaries were changed, but think that was long after 1877. And it's really just a couple of pages that have this (again, IIRC).
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I suggested Catholic as a possibility, having transcribed Anglican burials for Formby in Lancashire in the Victorian period. Quite a few were labelled Catholic, as this was before a Catholic chapel had been built and presumably they were interred in local consecrated ground. But the distinction had to be made ... 8)
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I suggested Catholic as a possibility, having transcribed Anglican burials for Formby in Lancashire in the Victorian period. Quite a few were labelled Catholic, as this was before a Catholic chapel had been built and presumably they were interred in local consecrated ground. But the distinction had to be made ... 8)
Oh really? ??? Well, it's certainly an Anglican parish so not sure. The people I recorded were ones with the relevant surname but not yet sure how (or if) they fit into my tree, so don't have any clues as to their affiliations. Odd that a load of Catholics died in the same week though if that's correct - unless I was looking at 1677 by mistake, rather than 1877!
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Well, it's certainly an Anglican parish so not sure. The people I recorded were ones with the relevant surname but not yet sure how (or if) they fit into my tree, so don't have any clues as to their affiliations. Odd that a load of Catholics died in the same week though if that's correct - unless I was looking at 1677 by mistake, rather than 1877!
Ah, if you have a close batch maybe my suggestion doesn't hold much water, especially for baptisms. But pre-registration the established churches were effectively the registration authority, and families were often baptised en masse, and maybe again later in a place more to their liking.
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I had a sudden inspiration on the 'C' against multiple entries in a burial register.
Might there have been a local epidemic, which the minister decided to keep a record of? Cholera, perhaps?
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I had a sudden inspiration on the 'C' against multiple entries in a burial register.
Might there have been a local epidemic, which the minister decided to keep a record of? Cholera, perhaps?
Not to my knowledge (which isn't that extensive, to be fair). Then again, if that's it, maybe there would be a lot more than a dozen or so (from memory) marked that way in what was quite a bustling parish at that time?
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4th Cholera Pandemic reached London in 1866 (5596 lives lost), and even Ystalfera in South Wales.
Nothing much since in UK?
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I'm currently scrolling through some more burial records and noticed a few (maybe suicides?) that say 'by coroner's order' above the person's name - wonder if C might therefore stand for Coroner? Then again, that one month in Kelloe must have had a lot of suicides if that's the case, which only seems slightly more likely than a load of Catholics mysteriously dying at the same time...
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Coroners would be involved with accidental or unexpected deaths as well as suicides, and in a mining community there might be quite a few of those. The ones with just a 'C' - were they men of working age?
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Thing is, none of them related to my lot, so I didn't record any of them. I came across another spate of them after I'd posted, and from memory, they were a mixture, men and women of various ages and even, I'm sure, a two-year-old. This was in Trimdon, a different parish to before, although another Durham mining village, round about 1860s. So as before, a lot appeared closely together which might suggest a mining accident (although 20 years before the notorious one) but assuming I'm right about women being in there too, not sure how that would tie in with this theory. Next time I come across another spate of these I'll have to check with the casualties listed on http://dmm.org.uk to see if there's any correlation.
But I do find myself inclined to believe C might stand for coroner now though, regardless of the causes of death...
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All that being said though, my understanding is that writing "by coroner's order" in the register for a suicide, the vicar was covering himself for burying a 'sinner' in consecrated ground, which he wouldn't have otherwise been legally obliged to do. I can't possibly imagine that in a mining community of all places, he would have to be 'forced' to bury victims of accidents and unexpected deaths, so why the need to write that? Anyway, next time I'll make a careful note of who this applies to, see if it sheds any light on the subject...
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All that being said though, my understanding is that writing "by coroner's order" in the register for a suicide, the vicar was covering himself for burying a 'sinner' in consecrated ground,
Nothing to do with suicides. The burial would have taken place with a coroners certificate. Section XXVII An Act for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England. [17 August 1836] 6 & 7 Will. IV. c.86
the Coroner, upon holding any Inquest, may order the Body to be Buried, if he shall think fit, before Registry of the Death, and shall in such Case give a Certificate of his Order in Writing under his Hand, according to the Form of Schedule (F.) to this Act annexed, to such Undertaker or other person having Charge of the Funeral, which shall be delivered as aforesaid;
Stan