Baptism & Birth Registration

[Allan Robson]

Hello All
How rare is it for a person to be neither Registered at Birth or Baptised as I have a Relative who appears to be neither, all his brothers and sisters were baptised pre-1837 or Registered post 1837.
he was the 6th child born in 1839/40, has anyone got any idea's.

Regards and thanks
Allan Robson

[Guy Etchells]

Not by 1837 the Stamp duty Act of 1783 was repealed in 1794 and as paupers were exempt from payment the number of "paupers" rose during those years.

A more likely reason would be that the family were non-conformists and simply did not get baptised in the C of E.

However in the case of an individual whose siblings were baptised the likely answers are-
He was possibly sickly at birth and had a private baptism.
He was baptised in another parish.
He was not baptised or baptised later in life.

Similarly with registration it is far more likely the birth is registered but does not appear where expected in the index.
It is of course possible the birth was not registered; this is more likely in a city than a village.
Cheers
Guy

[Mythology]

I have some where most of children were registered and/or baptised too, but with the odd one being missed. In a few cases a baptism has eventually turned up at a different church, but that's usually been a case of having the first boy baptised wherever father's side of the family lived and/or the first girl baptised wherever mother's side of the family lived - I can't think of any of mine who are in the middle of a batch of children where I've been so lucky.

[Peter Goodey]

I assume you have trawled through the actual parish register and not relied on an index or tanscript.

Have you checked non-conformist registers? Might be a possibility. I take it that you'd know if they were RC ;)

[Mythology]

"He was not baptised or baptised later in life."

A good point - one of mine, both of whose siblings were baptised when young, was eventually baptised when visiting mother while on leave from the army at the age of 24.

[Geoffers]

Failure to baptise/register may have varied greatly from one place to another. From researching several dozen parishes in NE Norfolk, I can say that there, an increasing trend towards later baptism developed from the end of the 18th century and as the 19th century progressed. Instead of baptism within a day or two of birth, children were often baptised between 5 and 20+. Sometimes baptism took place just before marriage, sometimes the parents did a job lot of all their offspring with the age (or year of birth) of each child noted against each entry.

For the 1st half of the 19th century, comparing census returns against CofE and non-conformist baptisms; there is a very low percentage who were not baptised - less than 1% - by some church. The percentage increases in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

This is for small rural villages. The trends could well be different in urban areas and different parts of the country.
Geoffers

[Allan Robson]

Thanks to all who answered, what makes my brickwall so hard is the fact all the baptims I have are all C of E, and my Relative had sister born Oct 1841 roughly 18 months to 2 years later who was Registered at Hetton-le-hole 9 days after her birth, I really am baffled and I start to think was John Robson Adopted/illegitimate, why leave one child out of 10 was there a reason.
or is he there and a spelling mistake has been made?.
I have personally checked the parish records of Hetton/Houghton, Sunderland and even Gateshead and Newcastle, it is possible he was baptised as a non-conformist but why only him.

Regards
Allan Robson

[Mark]

Took me ages to track down the GRO marriage and death entries for one of my cousins ...

Marriages Sep 1842
HALLAM Johnson Truro 9 322

Deaths Dec 1872
ATTOM Johnson 55 Durham 10a 189

My usual presumption is that a "missing" person is usually "mis-indexed" either due to mis-reading, or mis-information.

Mark HATTAM

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

One of my families had nine children altogether over a sixteen year span, but only three dates of baptisms for them all ...... they 'stocked up' first and had the first three baptised on the same day and so on. :D I was very lucky, as their birth dates were listed at the side of the entries.

I am still upset by the fact that my Gt. Grandparents had all their eight sons baptised, but not their three daughters .... one of those being my Grandmother. :(

[Allan Robson]

Hello Diane
My family did not stock up the baptisms each child was individually baptised
but I also think there is a missing child as follows:
children of John Robson and Eleanor Urwin
Robert born 1827 Cramlington, have bap
Jane born 1829 Walker, have bap
Mary Ann born 1831 bor Norton Co Durham, have bap
Elizabeth Born 1833 Norton, have bap
Douglas born 1835 Newcastle, have bap
John born 1839/40 have nothing
Margaret born Hetton 1841 have Birth Cert
Armstrong born Hetton 1843 have birth cert and Bap
Richard born Hetton 1846 have birth cert and bap

Note there is no child between Douglas and John, was there a child that was born and died in between?
I welcome an opinion on the above.

Regards
Allan

[LynA]

Hello Diane
My family did not stock up the baptisms each child was individually baptised
but I also think there is a missing child as follows:
children of John Robson and Eleanor Urwin
John born 1839/40 have nothing
Margaret born Hetton 1841 have Birth Cert
Allan
Hello Allan
Is it possible that there were nonconformist baptisms for the missing ones?
Some of my ancestors on the Isle of Wight used both Church of England (a selection!) and Bible Christian Meeting Houses for baptising their children:
Parents Robert & Hester COOLEY:
James born 1806; bap 1806 Arrreton Church
Charles bap 1808 Newport Church
Hugh bap 1810 Whippingham Church
Charlotte bap 1813 Carisbrooke Church
Mary Ann born 1815; bap 25 Oct 1818 Carisbrooke Church
Sarah born 1818; bap 25 Oct 1818 Carisbrooke Church
Benjamin born 1823; bap 1823 Carisbrooke Church
Alfred born May 1826; bap 1826 Gunville Bible Christian
Elford born May 1826 (probably the same Alfred); bap 1828 Carisbrooke Bible Christian
Alfred (birth date unknown, but could he be the same Alfred again?) bap 1832 Carisbrooke Church
I'd have missed a lot of these if it wasn't for the magnificent baptism index at the Isle of Wight Record Office.
Regards,
Lynda

[Allan Robson]

Hello Lynda
Thanks for your reply.
I suppose it is possible they there were non comformist baptisms but I checked the churches in Hetton were Margaret was born hoping her and John would be there but no luck, I am in the purpose of checking out Sunderland.
I still thinks its odd that I cant find John when this was family that seemed to
baptise there children and Register the births.

Regards
Allan

[Mark]

Quickly looking at FreeBMD (although it seems to have relatively few 1839 births at present), I see

1840 Mar
Robinson John Newcastle 25 [3_]_[5_]
Robinson John Sunderland 24 234
Robson John Newcastle 25 316

1840 Jun
Irwin John Newcastle 25 368
Robson John Newcastle 25 339
Robson John Newcastle 25 323

Don't see any likely ones in Houghton le Spring (apparently the district for Hetton).

Maybe he got registered by mistake under his mother's name (or a soundalike thereof) ... rare but possible.

Looking at the GRO images on Ancestry, for instance Mar 1840, there are John Robson's indexed in

Durham
Auckland
Newcastle
Castle Ward
Bellingham
Hexham
Skirlaugh
Alnwick
Gateshead

and yes, 1837 would appear to be a likely year for another "missing" child given the regular 2 year spacing of the other children.

Mark

[Allan Robson]

Hello Mark
Many thanks for your reply, I have had all the John Robson Registered Births checked 1837-1841 in all counties and he is not there, it could be a spelling error as you say Robson for Robinson I shall look into them and see what I can find.
John Robson was my gt,gt grandfather this is why i would like to find him to make sure he was not adopted or illegimate
Regards
Allan

[Allan Robson]

Hello Mark
How did you track down your cousins,it may help in my search

Regards
Allan Robson


Took me ages to track down the GRO marriage and death entries for one of my cousins ...

Marriages Sep 1842
HALLAM Johnson Truro 9 322

Deaths Dec 1872
ATTOM Johnson 55 Durham 10a 189

My usual presumption is that a "missing" person is usually "mis-indexed" either due to mis-reading, or mis-information.

Mark HATTAM

[Mark]

The HALLAM one was a guess based on it happening several times ... the indexer not seeing that the t's were crossed.

The ATTOM one was found after I found his death in the Durham Mining Accidents website, so I knew the date and therefore the quarter. (The mining site had the correct surname). So it was then a case of trying the more obvious mis-spellings until I found the appropriate one. That was using the book at the FRC in London.

Now that FreeBMD is much further advanced of course you can search that. You'll find currently 5 HALLAM's in the Penzance district in the database, all of them mis-readings and therefore mis-indexings of HATTAM. At least one though the indexer hedged his/her bets, and entered both HALLAM and HATTAM.

But as with any database when you don't get the results you expect, you have to tailor the request within the bounds of what is available to you.

Mark

[Allan Robson]

Hello Mark
Thanks for your reply and Help, I shall Trawl the Registers with fingers crossed.

Regards
Allan