One could assume, but one must not, right?
Concerning:
UK, England, Northumberland—Nonconformist Church Records, 1613–1920 [Part B][MSP3-SLQ]
These records are laid out in columns with no titles at the top. They look like either birth or baptismal records, for instance:
1789 Feb 2. Thomas. Edward & Jane. McKay. New Street.
No titles, just the info. If you look back it is all the same. If you look forward about 5 pages, one page has "was baptized" written by each row, but only on that one page.
I am reviewing and the original indexer is assuming these are all baptismal dates even on these unmarked pages, but should we do that? I hate to lose all the info, but they are making the assumption on these untitled pages.
Best Answers
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Back in that day, church records seldom recorded birth dates. The system says that there are no reference images so I can't gather any clues from that.
You have to make an assumption in order to be able get a form up to index it. I would just assume they are baptism records and index accordingly. Let the QC engineers later on decide if you were right. They should be able to see the whole data set and know for sure.
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Hi Jennifer. The project instructions under What To Remember About this Project answer the question as to why we index a singular date as a baptismal date or a burial date.
- If you are not sure if a date column refers to a baptism date or a birth date, index it as a baptism date. Sometimes you may find clues in the text of the document that suggest the date in question is either a birth date or a baptism date. A baptism date will always be after a birth date. Similarly, if you are unsure if a date column refers to a burial date or a death date, index it as a burial date. A burial date will always be after a death date.
This is also that crazy project where the field helps and the example are incongruent on the Child's Surname. The Field Help shows that one does index the child's surname from the Parent's Surname and the examples of How to Index a Baptismal Record show that they do not. I would accept either entry since they have only addressed what to do when the Child's surname is listed and the parents is not in the What To Look For While Reviewing Section. This would be the perfect spot to address the incongruent field help and PI examples for the child's non-existent surnames!
This is also the project that allows for multiple event indexing, so that is additional fun!
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Answers
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I think you can make the determination based on the set up of the form and the example How to Index a Baptism Register.
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Why would I assume this is a baptismal date rather than a birth date? Is there something that gives that away that I am missing? These are non-conformist church records and some of these groups did infant baptism but some of them did not.
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