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Colin Rowledge
26-04-2011, 8:27 PM
I have spent the last little while delving into baptisms on Cornwall OPC site

2 questions:
1] Is there a cutoff date for transcribing and uploading -the last and newest one appears to be June 1912?

2] If there is no baptism on-site - has it a] not been trancribed yet and should I contact the OPC direct, or b] assume the child was not baptised?

Colin

Pam Downes
26-04-2011, 10:21 PM
Having no knowledge about the Cornish OPC site except that gleaned whilst answering your queries :biggrin: I would say that
1) because of privacy laws there is a cut-off date for online baptisms, though if you read the instructions there are often later records available for look-ups.
2) If the supposed baptism date is in the middle of a block of years which have already been transcribed (e.g. child born 1850, transcribed baptisms 1820-1890) then you have to assume that the child was not baptised in the Cof E church in that parish.
Bear in mind that (a) the family could have been non-conformists, or (b) the child could have been baptised in another parish. And in a parish which has not yet been transcribed, though those do seem to be in a minority.

Added: To find out precisely which records have been deposited at the Record Office, you need to go to the placename on the Cornwall part of Genuki. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/
Church records, and then usually the second sentence refers to 'Cornwall Record Office holdings'.
Pam

Mutley
26-04-2011, 11:10 PM
Parish Chest covers a lot of Cornish products and parish records.
Have you tried sending Frank an email stating the parish you are interested in,
if he has not got he may be able to send you in the right direction.

MarkJ
26-04-2011, 11:39 PM
I have spent the last little while delving into baptisms on Cornwall OPC site

2 questions:
1] Is there a cutoff date for transcribing and uploading -the last and newest one appears to be June 1912?

Each transcriber or OPC has their own views, but in general most stick to the 100 year "rule" when it comes to placing stuff online. For example, I have transcribed several records - baptisms, burials, headstones etc - for my parish, but the ones which are mostly recent events are not online.



2] If there is no baptism on-site - has it a] not been trancribed yet and should I contact the OPC direct, or b] assume the child was not baptised?

Colin

Perhaps not transcribed, possibly just not online (see 100 year rule above) or perhaps the child was baptised in some place not covered by that OPC - e.g an adjoining parish.

Many reasons for things not appearing online - perhaps worth checking the Parish Chest cds to see if the parish/period/events are covered and/or dropping the OPC a quick message to ask.

As Pam says, you need to be aware of non-conformist baptisms etc too - but I know you already know about those Colin.

CanadianCousin
27-04-2011, 1:06 AM
If the supposed baptism date is in the middle of a block of years which have already been transcribed (e.g. child born 1850, transcribed baptisms 1820-1890) then you have to assume that the child was not baptised in the Cof E church in that parish.
Bear in mind that (a) the family could have been non-conformists, or (b) the child could have been baptised in another parish. And in a parish which has not yet been transcribed, though those do seem to be in a minority.

While I agree with Pam that if a baptism doesn't appear in a block of years which have already been transcribed, it most probably didn't happen (at least not in the CofE church in that parish), I can think of a few instances when this may not be so:

1) if the original register or image is illegible (sometimes just a few entries on a page are impossible to decipher);

2) if there's a page missing from the original register (which you may be able to detect if you can view all the entries sorted by date); or,

3) I have seen at least one instance where a page was missing from the microfilm/fiche copy of a register, even though it appeared on a transcript made from the original (I assume this was due to an error during filming).

For a few weeks last summer, the new FamilySearch site (possibly the beta or pilot version) did have digital images of many Cornwall registers available to view online. Although they weren't indexed, you could browse through the pages to check for suspected relatives. Regretably, this collection was pulled and hasn't reappeared since, although I continue to live in hope.

I realize that this doesn't help you much Colin, but if you have a particular reason to doubt the OPC database (e.g., birth places given in censuses, other siblings known to have been baptised in the parish), you can always try looking for yourself at a local FHC.

Good luck -

Tim

Colin Rowledge
27-04-2011, 1:42 PM
Hello Mark
The help I have received from several OPC's in Cornwall has been beyond my expectations. I am aware that they offer such services to the community [as do you in both the support of B-G and your own parish] on a voluntary basis.

In the past, I have received wonderful assistance from the OPC for St. Keverne, which is where most of my Ball family seemed to emanate from and I feel guilty about asking for more information since I know when the last 3 children were born and that all were on the census for 1851

With the census records after 1851 I have 2 of the 3 placed later in domestic service. It is the last one - born in 1850 that I cannot find. Given the circumstance within the family [which has detailed in another thread] I am thinking that maybe he was placed under guardianship and later adopted with a new identity provided. If so, would such detail be available from the OPC from St. Keverne or would I have to contact some civic authority for that information?

Colin