Genealogy Chat

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I have a little puzzle which I would be very grateful for some advice on! A fellow GR member very kindly went to her local library to look up an ancestor’s baptism for me in the parish records. I had found the baptism date (and his mother’s name) on the IGI but wanted the verification – and any additional information – from the parish records. However, his baptism wasn’t on them and we are not sure why. Someone said that non-conformist baptisms didn’t appear on the parish records – is this correct? And if so, where would they appear? My ancestor was married in the Parish Church but there is no father named on the marriage certificate, so does the fact that he was illegitimate make any difference to appearing on the parish records? Many thanks Mandy in Somerset

Mandy - can you give some details? It could be that it was one of those 'made up' IGI entries, but if you post the details up it should be possible to check. As for non-conformists, if they were baptised at a Methodist church or whatever it would be in the records of that church and that should be where the IGI entry came from so it should say the name of the church. It could be that the records office didn't have the records of that particular church, but then I think the person who was doing the lookup would have told you that, wouldn't they? Kate.

They could be Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, Quaker or any other religion you can think of. Having said that, if they were Catholic, they would likely marry in a Catholic church. Some of my ancestors started life as Quakers, so were born into those registers. However, the married in Parish churches. (got struck off Quaker list lol). I believe Quaker records are only available at the FRC in London. If they were Methodist, they would appear in the non-conformist registers. These should normally be held at the records office. (I have some of those too lol) Baptists keep separate records, but these can also be found at the records office (and yes, I have some of those as well lol) If he was illegitimate, it may be that the mother was sent away from home, and so had him baptised in the church local to where she was sent. If you found it on the IGI though, it should be there.

Thank you both very much for your helpful replies. This is the information from the IGI: John Blake Mother: Mary Blake Baptised: 26 August 1823 Shepshed, Leicestershire [although it was called Sheepshed back then] Batch number: C061061 Mandy PS: The lookup was done at the local library, not in the records office; I had phoned to check beforehand that the library's website was correct in saying that they held copies of the parish records.

Well, it is an 'extracted' entry on the IGI, so at least we know it wasn't made up by somebody doing their family tree like some of them are. But as to why it wasn't in the parish records... the batch is listed on Hugh Wallis as Shepshed, and he lists a separate one for the Baptist records for Shepshed, so it (John Blake's baptism) should be in the normal church records. If it couldn't be found in there, it could be that the wrong date was put up onto the IGI, but it could take a long time for somebody to search through all the years covered by that batch (1815 to 1875) to find it in that case. It has been known for a batch to be added to the IGI with the wrong church's name, but again this could only be checked by somebody getting a few names out of the batch and checking them against the Shepshed parish records to see if the rest of them appear in there. By the way, the fact that he was illegitimate would not affect whether his baptism was in the parish records. Kate.

Kate Many thanks for all your help, it's much appreciated. I didn't think that being illegitimate should make a difference, but I wanted someone more knowledgeable to confirm for me! As regards the date, I don't think it can be too far out because when he got married in 1842, his age was given as 'a minor'. We are planning to meet up in Leicestershire next year with our newly-discovered relatives from New Zealand, so we will include visiting all the Shepshed churches in our plans. Thanks again Mandy

Just a thought, Mandy - you could try subscribing (free) to the rootsweb mailing list for that area, to see if anyone on that mailing list is researching the same family or if someone could verify it for you. :-) Joy

You could try posting on the Leicester thread, there is a guy on there called Mike who seems to know the answer to just about anything posted!! paula

Joy That's a brilliant idea, thank you very much, I'll go and do that right now! Paula Thanks also - it was Lou from Leics who did the lookup and I think she might have mentioned it to Mike. If not, I'll get on the case straight away! Mandy in Somerset

You're welcome. Also, it could be worth posting on www.rootschat(.)com (please remove brackets), too. :-) Joy

Was your friend looking on the Parish Register or the Bishop's Transcripts? Sometimes an entry missed out or illegible on one can be found on the other. Christina

Christina Thank you very much for that suggestion - she was looking at the parish records, so the Bishop's Transcripts could well be an option. Mandy

On the IGI Individual page if you click on Source Call No. it tells you the source of the entry. In this case it was, as Christina suggested, the Bishops Transcript, so it may have been missing in the Parish Register

btw Mandy - in genuki in Leicestershire - there is ''The Leicestershire Look-up Exchange. Volunteers are offering look-ups in various research references.''. Joy