Parish Registers mother's surname

[roscow]

I have search results of baptisms from various sites and none include the surname of the child's mother. Do the transcriptions available online represent the full church record? If not is this info available elsewhere?
Regards

Zane

[charlotteCH]

Hi Zane, My comment would be that you'd be jolly lucky finding the mother's surname [ie assuming she was married] in a church baptism record.  Sometimes that happens-

It also needs saying that the actual reg. can contain more than is shown in transcription or on the IGI.  I got lucky by checking the original by ordering the film of the 1810 baptism, and it had the father's name and " Sgt Maj. 82nd Reg. of Foot."  I already knew that about the father  so it provided an valuable cross check.

So many ifs always,

charlotte

[Ruskie]

Info supplied can also depend on date and place. 

Sometimes on IGI for example, if you find a christening eg:

James Rogers chr 1 Dec 1812
St Thomas, Carlisle
father William Rogers
mother Hannah

then on the IGI if you look for a marriage of James Rogers to a Hannah
you may see something like:
William Rogers = Hannah Edwards
St Thomas Carlisle
2 Nov 1811

Therefore it may be that Hannah Edwards is the mother of James Rogers.

This is just another way to search and can be very useful especially in the case of unusual names or if the family lived in a small village.

Of course you would be advised to check this on the original parish records. And of course sometimes there are many people with the same name liviing in the same area and in that case this technique is of limited use.

Remember that extracted records are more reliable than submitted records on the IGI.

[charlotteCH]

Hi again, 
may I reiterate what Ruskie said in the last sentence of the post...

Remember that extracted records are more reliable than submitted records on the IGI

It's very important not to get caught depending on submitted records- if one surfaces you need some cross referencing of the info before putting any weight on it.

charlotte

[hiraeth]

It also depends how far you go back.  Women didn't seem to come into the equation at all the 17th and early 18th century days when even the mother's personal name was omitted from the registers -at least the mostly Welsh ones I have seen. 

[Guy Etchells]

It was common to find not only mothers surnames but dates of birth and dates of death in parish registers during the mid to late 19th century.
Dates of birth & death may also be found in the late 18th century (and in fact at other times)
Cheers
Guy

[Ruskie]

Some examples and information here:
http://www.pontefractfhs.org.uk/Dade_registers.htm

[billslad]

I think the mother's surnames "disappeared" about 1813 when standard forms were brought into use for church registers.  Prior to that it was down to the Vicar as to how much information was recorded and that varied from place to place.

The following is an example of the difference between an IGI entry and an actual baptism register entry

IGI

William Bell
born 02 Jun 1812
baptised 22 Jun 1812 at Haydon Bridge, Northumberland
father Joseph Bell
mother Ann Mulcaster

Haydon Bridge Register

William Bell born 2 June 1812 baptised 22 June 1812 1st son of Joseph, coal agent of Stublock, native of Lanchester by his wife Ann Mulcaster, not of this chapelry, daughter of John, native of Slaley

If possible, it's advisable to check any IGI record against the original register

John

[Little Nell]

Pre-1813, the mother's surname was almost never recorded.  Earlier than this - perhaps early 1700s (but it does depend on the parish and the incumbent) the mother's name was not recorded.

In the period 1813 -1837, you may find the mother's surname recorded, but it was not compulsory and depended on the person filling out the record. I have seen registers which do and do not record the mother's surname.

Unless of course, you are lucky enough to find an entry in a Dade register............

Dade registers are a particularly detailed type of printed or manuscript baptism and burial register which were used from late 18th century to 1812 and named after William Dade, a Yorkshire clergyman. 

A baptismal entry in these registers would include the dates of birth and baptism, the position of a child in the family, the occupation and place or origin of the father and mother and often the details of the child's grandparetns.  Some burial entries would record the age of the deceased, his or her parentage (no matter how old the person was) occupation, cause of death and the name of the husband in the case of a married woman.

A large number of parishes used this recording system (or something similar) in County Durham, Northumberland, parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire.  There were also a few parishes in Berkshire, Devon, Essex, Surrey and Wiltshire.

Nell