Querying the transcription of the record below.
The father is given as James but there are 2 other records with same digital folder number that give his name as Thomas. It seems unlikely that 2 people of the same name would be baptised in the same church on the same day with different fathers. Is it possible that this can be checked?
Name: James Hodgson
Sex: Male
Christening Date: 22 Nov 1766
Christening Place: Dalton in Furness, Lancashire, England
Father's Name: James Hodgson
Father's Sex: Male
Source Details: 2:2WQ9KHG
Digital Folder Number: 007566892
Microfilm Number: 1471899
Originating System: VR
Indexing Batch: C00516-4
Citing this Record
"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3BQ-FXM : 19 March 2020), James Hodgson, 1766.
Answers
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The URL you provided only contains a record for the christening of a James Hodgson who was the son of a James Hodgson. We did not find additional records that have a James Hodgson who was christened exactly the same day in the same Church who had a different father, but since James is a very common name, it is entirely possible that a person named Thomas and a person named James both chose to name a child James. The fact that the christenings occurred the same day in the same Church would not be unusual.
Do you have the URL of the other two records you are concerned about since we could not locate them? That would be helpful, but again, there is no reason to assume based upon a name and the date and location that the christening records for a child named James are for the same individual. Additional information about the three records would be helpful.
Because your post is about a Historical Record or several records you have found in the England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 collection, we will be moving this discussion to the Search Category in the Community Help Center where others who have similar research questions can find the discussion.
Once it has been moved, it will appear as closed in the Other Category, however, it will remain open and active in the Search category where others may make additional comments.
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Hi
Thanks for the quick response. The other 2 records are below
Name: James Hodgson
Sex: Male
Baptism Date: 22 Nov 1766
Baptism Place: Dalton in Furness, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
Father's Name: Thomas Hodgson
Father's Sex: Male
Digital Folder Number: 007566892
Image Number: 00371
Citing this Record
"England, Cumbria Parish Registers, 1538-1990", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7FML-Y5W2 : 16 January 2020), James Hodgson, 1766.
Name: James Hodgson
Sex: Male
Baptism Date: 22 Nov 1766
Baptism Place: Dalton in Furness, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
Father's Name: Thomas Hodgson
Father's Sex: Male
Digital Folder Number: 007566892
Image Number: 00371
Citing this Record
"England, Cumbria Parish Registers, 1538-1990", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WBSC-1N2M : 16 January 2020), James Hodgson, 1766.
Hope that clarifies things.
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@David Clark_31 , thank you so much for providing the additional URL. Indeed, the date and the location are the same for both records, but with the URLs being very different, they represent two records. We did notice that actually viewing the images would be available at a Family History Center or an Affiliate Library for the records, and perhaps seeing them as they appear in the parish records would be beneficial for you to determine whether they are two separate individuals.
Again, there is no reason to believe both records are for the same individuals when they appear as two separate records, and when the father's names are different. More than one baptism could occur on a given day, and the parish records would show how and exactly where each record appeared.
If you need to find a Family History Center or Affiliate Library close to you, please go to the Help Center page and scroll down below the icons for our various programs and features to find the Find Local Help box. Type your location or authorize your computer to know your location to find centers or affiliated in your area. You can also follow the instructions in the following knowledge article to try to find a Family History Center in your area.
We wish you success as you continue to try to verify information about your deceased ancestors and hope actually viewing the images from the parish records will help to resolve any questions you may have about the christening records.
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Thanks for taking the time to look into this for me. I may well look at trying to view the actual records as you suggest.
Dave
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David,
This is an excellent illustration of why it is very important to never, never, never, completely trust an index and why it is critically important in our research to check original records.
Old records can be hard to read. Indexers can slip up. Very interesting situations can crop up in real history.
You may find when you check the actual records that:
- One indexer read Thomas as James. With fancy but sloppy handwriting Th could look like a J, o could look like an a, and a could look like an e.
- An indexer's eyes slipped and James was the first name of the father in the record before or after James's record.
- That these records come from two different copies of the record and in one of them the priest made a mistake and wrote down the wrong first name for the father.
- Two brothers, James and Thomas, had sons the same month, had them christened the same day, and both named them James after their grandfather.
- Or any of a number of other weird combinations of real facts and understandable mistakes. That is half the fun of family history.
Definitely check out those actual images. And teach everyone you know to always be skeptical of indexes which are wonderful, indispensable, incomplete finding aids that we could never do without but are never the final word on what a record really says.
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The bishop's transcript for Dalton-in-Furness only has one child baptised on 22 Nov 1766, a James, son of Thomas Hodgson: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XXH3-1LP?i=523&cat=181331. (Film # 004226297 Image 524 of 804.)
The original parish registers (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/408912) are restricted to viewing at an FHC or affiliate library, but both a "Thomas" index (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7FML-Y5W2) and a "James" index (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3BQ-FXM) are associated with the first of those two films (DGS 7566892). The former gives an image number (371), the latter does not.
What it looks like to me, so far, is that the parish register was indexed twice, and one of them got the father's name wrong. You should be able to get a copy of image 371 from DGS 7566892 using the Family History Library's lookup service. (Use the help icon at the top right of a regular FS page and search for "lookup service"; the correct article should be about third or fourth on the list.)
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