"Miscellaneous Register"

[Mitch in Notts]

I`ve just looked at an original image of William Notman entry at Larbert in the OPR Births.

Its listed on a page titled "Miscellaneous Register 1792"
the columns across read: Date, Children, Parents, Witnesses.
The witness column is blank on many including mine.

My Birth is not listed on the IGI. Would I be correct in thinking this is a list of Births rather than a list of Baptisms - possibly of non-established church members?
I have always found it impossible to trace the marriage of William Notmans parents William Notman & Elizabeth Craven - I viewed the image just to check the spellings on the mothers name.

Thanks

Mitch

[JustJean]

Interesting question! The recording scribe for Larbert gives little indication of just what his "Miscellaneous" register was for. Was he sifting throught his notes at year-end and realized he had left a few people out of the great book? A further search just to try and set a pattern for his activities turns up another child born to William and Elizabeth and recorded in 1798. This one however looks to be in the same hand and is dutifully written on the page inscribed Baptisms yet it utilizes the same format of a column for date, a column for child's name, a column for parents, and a final column for witnesses. So now you wonder hmmm..wonder if they had not joined the church yet in 1792 but had by 1798?? Sooo....yet another search...this time of the BIVRI disks to see if the good folks from SLC have had a go at those particular OPR's to see what their take on the situation was..... and lo and behold their opinion is that of a baptism (christening). The record for William is indexed like so.....

NOTMAN, William
Christening
Gender: Male
Christening Date: 23 Sep 1792
Recorded in Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Father: William NOTMAN
Mother: Elizabeth CRAVEN

I guess I'd tend to side with the opinion it was a christening!

Note that even though the IGI and the BIVRI disks are both produced by the same organization they do not contain identical records!! Oftentimes a missing IGI entry can be uncovered through this other source.

Best wishes
Jean

[Lesley Robertson]

I`ve just looked at an original image of William Notman entry at Larbert in the OPR Births.

Its listed on a page titled "Miscellaneous Register 1792"
the columns across read: Date, Children, Parents, Witnesses.
The witness column is blank on many including mine.

My Birth is not listed on the IGI. Would I be correct in thinking this is a list of Births rather than a list of Baptisms - possibly of non-established church members?
I have always found it impossible to trace the marriage of William Notmans parents William Notman & Elizabeth Craven - I viewed the image just to check the spellings on the mothers name.

Thanks

Mitch

Quite a few records were missed when the registers were transcribed for the IGI. Sometimes, I imagine, the books just weren't very legible, other times it's not so easy to see why. I have a set of registrations for my OPS where the (new) Minister is obviously playing catch-up for his very elderly predecessor and lists a number of baptisms under a single entry, along the lines of:
"Kermit MacMuppet and his lawful wife Piegi Muppetson had a son, Rowf, baptised the 14 Nov 1832 baptised by Rev Swedish Chef. Also a daughter Jane baptised the 1 April 1828. Also a son Arnimal baptised the 15 December 1822. "
Often, I fnd that only the first child has been included, almost as though the transcriber didn't realise that it wasn't a single entry.
There was no specified format for recording bap/mar entries, it was entirely up to the Minister and/or Clerk. It sounds as though your guy started out with good intentions and then the system fell apart. In the Whitsome OPR, witnesses are only listed if the ceremony took place away from the Church - at the home of a participant, for example.This didn't impy that a child was near death, or anything like that, just that the Miister was willing to travel. For a ceremony in the Church, the congregation was considered to be the witness.
A lot of baps/mars are not listed in the OPR because the Church had a phase of charging extra for the entry. People went through the ceremony, presumably got their certificate to say they had done so, and didn't bother with the additional recording.

Lesley

[Mitch in Notts]

Many thanks for your replies. Very informative. Certainly gives me food for thought. I`d love to sit down with the film of these records and browse.
Never know one of these years.....

Mitch