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Prior to 1837 records was it obligatory to have a child baptised ?

No it wasn’t but families did usually because the local church was where the families married etc
There was different religions then as there are now and some churches had their own rituals which didn’t involve baptism

Also bear in mind that even if a child was baptised, there may be no record for us to find now - inefficient record-keeping at the time, perhaps, or loss or destruction of records between then and now.

Records of a baptism showed a link with a particular parish. This could be important if they fell on hard times and needed parish relief.

Baptisms /Christenings are not always where we might expect.
It is worth also checking surrounding parishes or maybe those near the child's grandparents, especially if a young woman has gone 'home' to her parents for the birth of a first child.

Local geography might also play a part.
I have relatives who lived in Gloucestershire, who I couldn't find baptisms for in their parish. When we visited the area it became obvious that the nearest church was just a fairly short walk away down the hill, but it was in fact over the county boundary in Herefordshire, which is where I found the baptism recorded.

1837 has nothing to do with baptisms

1837 saw the introduction of CIVIL registration of births, marriages and deaths

Baptism is a religious ceremony

Many children were not baptised soon after birth, but many of them were baptised later around the time they would be going to work, say 10 or 11.

Some were baptised around the time they got married, or even later.

Sometimes there was both an early baptism and a later one ................... if a child about to start work and the employer required that they be a baptised Christian but they couldn't remember, then they would have to get it done a second time.

Children were also sometimes baptised in batches, 3 or 4 or more at a time ............... people lived in remote areas and couldn't get to church, or there was no priest at the church or he rotated between churches, or they wanted to go back to their "home" church, or it was cheaper. Baptisms had to be paid for and I've assumed that they paid the same for one baptism as for 4.


There were all kinds of reasons ............

and it is never safe to assume anything about our ancestors!


Always try looking for years after a birth to see if there was a later baptism, and never restrict your search to one parish.

When OAPs were introduced for over 70s in 1908, there was a very limited age range for people to have b.certs, so baptismal certs were accxepted as proof of age, but many folk could not provide these, and the census was opened thousands of times to provide proof of age for these folk.

Almost certianly pertaining to this other thread

https://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/ancestors/thread/1380346

Sorry for not responding sooner, thanks for all the help and yes Erika, that thread was what prompted my thought.

Was it any Parish in particular?, on your other 'Thread' you are going from Haverhill Suffolk over border to Cambs...(not far from Essex the other side)

(anything Cambs related, Parish CD's are available)

https://www.cfhs.org.uk/

Chris :)

I have Cambridge and Suffolk discs for the relevant areas but I understand I may need to look further afield :-) Gets expensive buying a cd to find one name !

Always ask on here before buying, someone may have the disc and be willing to look for you before you buy it for 1 name