Heath Parish Records

[atropica]

I'm a bit puzzled by the Heath parish records on Ancestry. When I search for Henry Hardwick baptised
10 August 1755 I find him recorded and can see the film of the original document for Heath All Saints church 1682-1812
When I search for John Hardwick baptised 11 February 1753 I find him recorded  and can see a film of a different original document for Heath 1712-1760.
Looking through the first document for John Hardwick there is no record of his baptism in 1753. Likewise there is no record for Henry Hardwick's baptism for 1755 in the second ducument.
Actually I am more than a bit puzzled ??

[rosie99]

I do not have access to the images on ancestry but could one set of records be the parish register and the other the bishops transcripts for the same period.

[atropica]

Thanks Rosie. I think I've solved the puzzle. The last but one page of the second document shows two newspaper cuttings from the Derbyshire Times and Derbyshire Chronicle for the 24th June 1882 that must have been stuck into the book. They describe the book as having been lost from Chesterfield parish church for some 50 to 60 years and rediscovered when offered for sale by a Derby book seller and few weeks before the newspaper articles where written.
Fascinating.
Still doesn't explain why Ancestry catalogue the contents for Heath parish and not Chestefield. Ho hum.

[DRH123]

It's even more complicated as there are two Chesterfield register whose coverage overlaps. The one you've found assigned to Heath (in Latin) and the other (in English) correctly assigned to Chesterfield. So you can get an event reported as happening at both places.

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=836655.msg7019285#msg7019285

David

[GrahamH]

Still doesn't explain why Ancestry catalogue the contents for Heath parish and not Chestefield. Ho hum.

The explanation is probably that the cataloguing isn't always accurate for parishes.

I once contacted Ancestry regarding cataloguing of Glossop records and was told to always include Exact to County to overcome problems.
I have also found that some Whitfield parish records are indexed under Glossop (which it was formed out of) but not all.

A similar "problem" occurs with some nonconformist records. For instance, some north west  Derbyshire Methodist records are catalogued under Manchester because of the way circuits were arranged.

[ruth52]

I too have discovered a problem. My ancestor John Wyatt was baptising children in the mid 1700's, (I have all the details to save anyone looking them up!)
All 10/11 of the children (except for the last 2) are recorded as having been baptised at both Heath, and Chesterfield All Saints (Crooked Spire).
I assume that Chesterfield took over the records when old Heath Church was demolished (in 1851), and think that the Baptism records showing Chesterfield are a later transcription.
I'm open to any suggestion, but am now looking for family traces in the smaller area of Heath (or Lunt -its twin village)

[DRH123]

It's simpler than that. Ancestry have made a mistake. There are two Chesterfield registers covering that period, one in English, one in Latin. Ancestry have incorrectly assigned the Latin one to Heath. All baptisms that come up as happening at both places only happened at Chesterfield. (The English one probably is a transcription/translation of the other.)

If you go to their search page for Derbyshire registers, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61407/ , and select Heath it gives you two choices: 1682-1812 and 1712-1760. Only the first is really from Heath. Image 53 gets you to the baptisms around 1750. There are usually less that 10 a year so you can soon check if your Wyatts are there.

David

[ruth52]

Thanks David , your explanation make things clear. A pity because I'd thought I could narrow down the search for my elusive Whyatts. They were not in the Heath register    John Whyatt has long been a brickwall! 

Ruth