Status Animarum symbols and handwriting help?

[clayton bradley]

Sorry. I meant to say John Broadley was confirmed in 1835. There is no record of his baptism.

[rowanali]

That is useful info about the set up of Catholic church in the 1800s.  That level of knowledge always help inform the conclusions we draw.

I have similar batches of Confirmations which seems to have been done by a Right Reverend Alexander Paterson and then later by Right Rev and Dr James Kyle.  They were done in 1818, 1821, 1825 and 1830 (haven't looked at later ones yet).  I think mine are fairly evenly matched for men and women.   It is from these entries that state "AD 1825" that I can see the capital A and D are the same as the mark next to one of the missing names in the 1824 Status Animarum.  So I am drawing the conclusion that it stands for adultery and daughter in same way as they record bastard son. 

From checking dates of the listed family member confirmation and comparing to the marks on the SA, I think that 'Com' is actually 'confirmed' and 'not Com' is then not confirmed.  The C with a dot symbol  is probably communion.  Seems the wrong way around, but Paul Stuart was confirmed in Sept 1825.  On the 1824 Status Animarum he has the C dot, but not the Com, whereas on the 1828 Status Animarum he has both.  May never know for sure.  But it has helped me work out that I have 2 separate daughters - Elspet and Elizabeth/Betty.  I never thought one parent would give such similar names to daughters, but actually I have since found these two names in other families too.

Could they have received communion without being confirmed??

 

[Maiden Stone]

I have similar batches of Confirmations which seems to have been done by a Right Reverend Alexander Paterson and then later by Right Rev and Dr James Kyle.
 

They would have been the titular bishops/ vicars apostolic. Try googling their names. The wiki article I read the other day omitted names of the Highland/Northern Vicariates incumbents. You may notice that a priest of that era sometimes wrote "Missa Apost." after his name.

Could they have received communion without being confirmed??

For a brief explanation + potted history of sacraments of initiation see Catholic Life : Confirmation from Archdiocese of Brisbane website.
https://brisbanecatholic.org.au/life/confirmation
Traditional order was Baptism; Confirmation; Communion.
"Early 1900s Pope Pius X lowered age of First Communion from around 12, as it was then, to the 'age of reason' around 7 years of age. But Confirmation got left where it was, so the order of sacraments of initiation got switched around."
I recall a teacher telling my class, possibly during preparation for First Communion, that our grandparents didn't make their First Communion until they were at least 10. We were aged 6-8.

Re. the division of the Catholic missions of England & Wales and Scotland into vicariates plus a neat Australian connection:
William Bernard Ullathorne (1806-1889) was put in charge of the Western Vicariate in England in 1845. He was previously (from age 26) Vicar General of the Catholic Church in Australia & His Majesty's Catholic Chaplain to New South Wales. Fortunately he had boundless energy and was a good organiser. On his return to England he became influential in ending the practice of transportation of criminals to Australia. He was consecrated as the first Catholic Bishop of Birmingham in 1850. He was considered a front-runner to succeed Cardinal Wiseman but it was his friend, Manning who got the cardinal's hat. His autobiography is "Cabin-boy to Archbishop". (Instead of settling for dull job in his father's drapery business he ran away to sea.) His mother was related to the explorer, Franklin. William Ullathorne (probably) shared a great-aunt with my "Monseigneur", cousin of my 2xGGF. I noticed Ullathorne's name on the information piece about Catholic records on FindMyPast yesterday and I was reminded of him.