Baptist BMD Records - Advice Needed Please

[marcie]

hi
i have been looking for the birth of john doggett st. albans 1800 for some years, i have reason to believe that he may have been a baptist, i e-mailed the local baptist churches in st. albans but received no reply, i,m pretty sure that they keep their own records but if not available to me, is there anywhere else i could look, i have had help with people searching the parish registers in hals but no info
many thanks marcie

[kerryb]

Hi Marcie

Have you tried the website http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/ it is a bit costly but maybe worth it for a brickwall.

Basically it has non parish register bmds including many non conformist such as baptists.  I managed to find one recently that I had been searching for, for ages.

Kerry

[marcie]

hi kerry
i have,nt heard of that site, off to have a look now, many thanks
marcie

[Valda]

http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/

Has indexed two classes or records at The National Archives

RG4
General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857.
Covering dates 1567-1858

RG5
General Register Office: Birth Certificates from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry
Covering dates 1742-1840

I don't know how complete their indexes are of all of these records. A large proportion of the records in RG4 at least, excluding most Quaker records and any burials, have already been indexed on the IGI.

Baptists were poor record keepers and many of their church records do not survive. Pre 1837 they should have been surrendered to the government (RG4) when civil registration began. The government at the time agreed to recognise non-conformist registers as legal documents provided they were surrendered, hence why they are now held in The National Archives.
Pre 1837 non-conformists were not allowed to marry in their own churches only Anglican churches (excepting Quakers) and Baptists of course did not believe in child baptisms so any records they kept would only be of those entered into the church or of their burials if they had a burial ground - otherwise the burials would be in the Anglican churchyard.

Regards

Valda

[marcie]

hi kerry & valda
many thanks for your help & advice, i have looked at the sites mentioned but did,nt find anything, the doggett name is well known in st albans, but because i don,t live locally it,s difficult to gather info, i might have to accept that i cannot go any further with this line, so frustrating,as i have been able to follow
johns children in australia perfectly well
kind regards marcie

[behindthefrogs]

It is well worth lookin for Baptist Church baptism records because while they are adult baptisms they frequently include the date of birth.  If you can find them many non-confomist records contain a lot more information than parish registers prior to 1837.  One other source to look for is Dr William's Library.  This used to be on fiche at the Family Records Centre but maybe they are now only available like the deposited records at the National Archives

David

[marcie]

thanks david,
i,ll try that, in fact i,ll try anything to find this relative of mine,
kind regards marcie

[Valda]

RG5 includes Dr William's Library so potentially indexed by

http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/

RG5
General Register Office, 1836-1970
Dr Williams Library, 1742-1865
Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry, 1742-1837
Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry, 1818-1838

The best Baptist records pre 1837 that I have seen have largely been baby's births recorded in the register.

Marcie

Have you checked with Hertfordshire Record Office to see whether there are any Doggett wills deposited there that might give you further information?

John and Henrietta Doggett baptised 6 children at St Peter's in St Albans, so if this is the correct John Doggett if he was born a Baptist he was certainly lapsed by 1824. Have you found where he married?

Regards

Valda

[behindthefrogs]

The best one that I ever found contained not only the names of the parents but the grandparents as well.  I can't remember if it was a baptism or a birth record.

David