Baptism of daughter of Robert/Ann Crook of Calne, from 1867 onwards?

[ValJJJ]

I have a lot of information on this daughter, Ann Crook, who was born either late 1867, or in Q1 1868 (GRO Reference: 1868  M Quarter in CALNE  Volume 05A  Page 70 MMN Warren), but can't find her baptism.

I've used Ancestry and FindMyPast, plus looked at the images of the baptism book from 1st Sept 1867 through to the end of 1883. Yet to start on 1884.

Her father Robert was a butcher in Calne, and mother was Ann nee Warren.  They married in 1864 in Calne, and had ten children, 6 of which died within a year of birth, often in the same quarter. 

Their firstborn, John, is in the baptism record on Ancestry, in Calne for 1865, and their second born, but I can only find 3 other children in the baptism records for the whole of Wiltshire.  Some were baptised in their birth year, but one was 3 years later.  Perhaps with so many dying, they gave up on the church for the other 5?  Or for some reason the other children were baptised in another county, or perhaps at a non-conformist church? 

I thought Ann Crook might have been baptised with a different name, so searched on Crook surnames, with no first name entered, and the parents names, but nothing came up.

This is just a niggling loose end, but if anyone can shed any light on it, I'd be grateful.

Thanks.
Val

[warncoort]

Might be worth a look here.
http://www.archersoftware.co.uk/igi

[ValJJJ]

Thanks for this resource.  I've never really got my head around batch numbers, but I will explore this site further.

[amondg]

The first 2 children John and Katherine died not long after baptism so perhaps they were sickly.

Ann child number 3 was healthy, George number 4 (1869) bap 1870 was a maybe but he survived,

Kate number 5 born 1872 healthy, Elizabeth 1874 sickly so was baptized 1875 she died shortly after.

Perhaps whatever caused Elizabeth's death made them afraid Kate 1872 has also contracted so she was baptized 1875 age 3 after the death of Elizabeth or shortly before she died.

By now she has 3 living children and 3 deceased.
Then come Robert died age 1  William died age 1 and Harold Archibald age 0

The last Alice Maude Mary 1882 survives.

What caused the death of the father 1885 ?

[ValJJJ]

So amondg, are you thinking they only baptised those who they thought were in danger of dying?  You'd think they'd have them all baptised though just in case, as there were so many situations where children might die, not just in infancy.

I haven't got the father's death cert, and don't know if it would give a cause.  I have searched for him in the newspaper archive and found a couple of mentions of him relating to his butcher's shop.  Permission to use the footpath for his Christmas display of meats, and a write up of the display - whole carcasses of cattle etc, which must have been something to see.

[amondg]

It was just a thought.

[ValJJJ]

Good one though.

I was searching for a completely different family and discovered their firstborns (twins) baptised in Chesterfield although born/living in London.  They'd gone back to their parents and had them baptised there.  At least the connection was obvious for the different location.  But both Robert and Ann Crook were both from Wiltshire and lived in Wiltshire, so I can't see any other likely county for them to have the children baptised in.  So either they alternated with a non-conformist church and the records are yet to be digitised, or they are in a parish register somewhere but not transcribed, or just not baptised.

It's intriguing.