No record of their baptism nor of their parents or their parents ..
I believe they in the 1820 settlers book. Did they register their children as foreign born and Where they South Africans or Irish. I am finding nothing.
Also seems Alexander married Jane and she was 12 - 16 years old ?!?! She signed with a simple "X" so how was she to register her children?
Baptisms of Alexander and Edward were probably before the surviving registers for Templemichael began. See my post #32.
When did birth registrations begin in that part of South Africa? Civil registration of births began 1837 in England & Wales, 1855 Scotland and 1864 Ireland.
Re Jane's age. Legal age for marriage in Ireland and England was 12 for girls. Typical age at marriage for a female was late teens, early 20s. Jane may not have known her actual age.
Jane's literacy skills. That was normal for the time. However just because someone made their mark, it didn't necessarily mean that the person was illiterate. S/he may not have had "penmanship skills" or the parson assumed she didn't and told her to make her mark.
As to how Jane would have registered her children - if there were no registers then there was no need to register births. If there was civil registration, a system for collecting information would have been devised. When it began in England, registrars were responsible for collecting information through various channels until people became accustomed to the registration regime. What happened in rural Ireland was that father, mother or other relative would register a birth when they went to town for some other reason e.g. market.
Church registers were the main proof of birth before civil registration of births began.
The British government didn't know the size of populations in the countries of the UK in between 1821 & 1831 censuses, let alone how many had been born or died.
