If anyone has been looking for Baptisms @ St.Josephs, Stockport then you are not going to find them. All the Baptisms have been indexed twice, incorrectly. They have been indexed as burials and to add further confusion they have also been duplicated and attributed to St.Peters, Staleybridge .Its no exageration to say there is probably thousands of incorrectly indexed baptisms, and thousands of incorrect burials indexed.No one is going to find them at best, and at worst go away satisfied with an incorrect burial. Its difficult to explain, so i'll try set out what we done and how we found out:
Michael Sharkey born last quarter 1867, available on any GRO index, in Stockport. 4th ,November 1867, and his parents where Owen Sharkey and Bridget Dwyer. Michael can be found with his parents in later census, so went on to live for quite a bit. However searching through the records (Family Search/ Ancestry/ Findmypast) they (all) reveal that a "Michael Sharkey " was buried in St.Josephs, Stockport on 3rd Nov,1867. Parents: William Sharkey and Bridget Dwyre .
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J82P-KX3Nothing too unusual about that so far. The records also reveal that a "Michael Sharkey" was buried on the same date (3rd,Nov 1867) @ St.Peters, Stayleybridge. Parents : Eugenis Sharkey and Bridget Dwyre Sharkey.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JZ8R-K4VNow we're into raised eyebrow territory. The records (England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991)on Ancestry are transcribed records, so you get a text version with no image available. The Familysearch records are also transcribed records with no image available. FindMyPast does however have an image available for the St.Peters, Stayleybridge burial. Examining the St.Peters burial reveals the record is actually a Baptism. Strange..........
Now, despite the FamilySearch burial record for St.Josephs, Stockport saying no image available a look through the Familysearch Cataloge reveals that St.Josephs records are available as unindexed images, which is odd as the records have apparently been indexed. Searching though the unindexed images of St.Josephs burials reveals there was no such burial.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/788410?availability=Family%20History%20Libraryhttps://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-63KQ-1R?i=3&cat=788410So i try another one i found in the images............ "Thomas McCormack 1867". Sure enough, same dance.... he was buried 17th November, 1867 in both churches with the same parents. You can just keep replicating this using the names you find in the Burials, its all the same result. Interestingly the film numbers for the St.Josephs and St.Peters records are the same film number : "2068242".
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J82P-KXFhttps://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JZ8R-KHMThey are all baptisms mis indexed as Burials. I let Familysearch know, they don't seem interested , neither do Ancestry. They're not a data set i use, but you here in this section will use them so at least you now know where to find your missing records.
Cheers.