General Chat

I've been looking at the IGI finding christenings for my great grand mother and her siblings, there were 10 of them altogether and I've found most of their christenings but for some reason 3 of her brothers weren't done. Was this the norm back in 1870ish to have some children christened and others not?

Alison

Depends. Were they living in the same place? If, for some reason the family had to move away, perhaps for employment, they may have waited to have the children christened back in their 'home' village, or they may not have had the money to pay for a christening.
One of my families had two children in one village, then moved back to the 'home' village and had their (by now) five children baptised along with their friends' children, by that time, the eldest was 12 and the youngest 1.

maggie

Thanks maggie, I did think about that so when I searched I left the county blank but can't find any christenings that match the 3 boys, all the other children were done in Lincoln and 3 of the boys were christened together.

I believe, if they married - and it could only be in a church until 20th century - they would have to be christened to marry.
If they did marry, try looking a couple of years before, up until the marriage.

maggie

Its possible that the boys may have been christened elswhere and the details have not been recorded on IGI.
IGI is not a complete record source. I have loads on my tree christened in my local parish that are not on IGI ,yet they are in the parish records.
You may need a trip to your records office to look at the original records.

Thanks for your replies.

Maggie I'll have a look for them later on in the IGI.

Sandra I'm hoping to make a trip to the archives soon, I just wasn't sure if all parish records were held there because I've never been before.

Alison

My father, b1902, was baptised 11 Apr 1926, was married 24 Apr 1926.
Brian(i)

Just looking at one branch of my tree and I can only find the daughter's christened so far and not the sons!

I was looking at christenings too beef up my info a bit, some of the people on my tree I have yet to research properly and won't even think of sending for certificates for until I've bought all the ones for my direct line. I am looking at buying some of the discs which hold parish information but wasn't sure if they hold any more info than the IGI.
I have a distant relative on here who has been through parish registers as she has birth, christening and burial dates for many in my paternal side. I don't know how I managed before i learnt to search the IGI!

Alison

Although birth registration was compulsory from 1875 - not all births were registered after that date. I don't know the percentage that weren't but I know of one whole family (my grandfather and his siblings) who were not registered. Apparently (from something I read somewhere) if one child in a family was not registered it was likely that none of the others would have been.

Jill

Joan, would a local archives hold all parish records for that county or would I need to get in contact with a specific church to view records. The only research I've done so far is online.

Thanks Alison x

Jill, I've been looking on the birth register for a more recent birth. I knew my cousin was born in 1965 but couldn't find any record, my uncle's told me the date but if I search through records she's not there. Bizarre

Just another point here. Maggie says that if they married - this would have to be in a church until the 20th century. This is not true - there have been register office weddings since registration began in 1837.

Kath. x

My point was that the majority of weddings were in churches. You had to have been christened to marry in an Anglican/Protestant church as well as a Catholic church - in fact that held until very recently.