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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Topic started by: SuzyWoo on Thursday 30 April 20 14:18 BST (UK)
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Hi, I wonder if anyone could help me with a question on Baptisms recorded in Parish Registers.
I have found 5 children baptised with the fathers name listed as Richard Turner but no mothers name was listed. The baptisms started in 1695 and went up to 1705. I then found a marriage of a Richard turner to an Anne Hobbs in 1722.
In the baptisms after 1722 I found 2 more with the parents name of Richard and Anne Turner.
I cannot find any other marriage for Richard.
My question is why there was no mothers name recorded in the first 5 baptisms? Is this a normal approach, does it mean that Anne was the mother but they were not married, or is there likely to be a different mother for the first 5 children.
Thankyou, Sue
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quite common in earlier baptisms to find only the father's name. You'll find marriages with only the first name of the bride as well.
Was one of the earlier baptisms a Richard? The 1722 marriage is more likely one of the children of the older Richard.
Are you looking at a scan of the register or transcriptions? Marriage for older Richard could be in another parish that isn't online, on a page missing from the register, illegible, damaged. Have you checked what registers survive for the parish on Genuki?
https://www.genuki.org.uk/index.php
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One of the main parish registers for the town I was born in had a very helpful parish clerk. Even in the 1800’s he recorded the baptisms as John Smith and wife. no female names listed at all.
Obviously he couldn’t foresee the problems this would lead to for future research.
Regards
Panda
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Hi Sue,
I think you will find this to be very common. I have many ancestors where only a father's name is recorded especially from the 1500s. In some cases in the early days, no parent(s) are listed at all.
It wasn't untill the late 1600/early 1700s that it became quite common for a mother to be listed.
Having said that, I do know that in the early days, in some parish registers both parents were named and in some enlighten parishes the mother's maiden name was also listed (ie; late ......)
Alan