Middlesex Parish records in 1786--what is it?

tndavis

batch number MSFT-CPN

I'm reviewing this record and am confused about the left side. I'm pretty sure the right side is a list of burials, but the left side looks to me like maybe reminders to do banns (without the people involved listed) and then maybe appointments? (All the days listed for banns are indeed Sundays)

Any thoughts?

DHilary2

Hello,

There have been discussions about these sorts of entries before and the thought seemed to be that the left-hand pages were just some sort of list of banns of marriage that had been read and ladies who had been "churched" after the birth of a child. At that time, women were deemed to be "unclean" after childbirth until they had been offically received back into the church - quite often at the same time as the child was also received into church (often a different ceremony from a baptism). That would explain why the names are all married women; single mothers were not eligible for churching. These entries would not be indexed.

The "Do" mark is definitley for "ditto" and means to repeat the information in the line above.

I hope this helps.

Hilary.

kathryngz

Wow, I've never seen anything like that before in parish registers!

The shared batch doesn't let me see any reference images--can you see any? Also, are there any other pages like this for other months?

@Darris Williams , any thoughts?

John Empoliti

Hi @kathryngz . Currently, only the Indexer and Reviewer can see the reference images.

I don't work on these records, so I don't have anything to add regarding the indexing of them, but:

Here is a link to the film from which the batch image comes. It is image #56. If you look back to the beginning of the film you can see the cover of the Registry Book and what it is supposed to contain.

https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/image-details?imageGroupNumbers=007570520&rmsId=TH-1971-39572-16845-88&imageIndex=55

I see Bann references; I also see "Do" fairly often. In some contexts, it can mean "daughter of," but here I've seen it following a male name (e.g., John), so maybe it means "Death of" the person it precedes. Anyway, have a look and see what you can figure out. It may help others who are trying to index and review these records. Good luck.

Here is the Header of the film:

Here is the cover of the book:

Here is that little tag on the front cover.

tndavis

Thank you. Looking at the other pages, I'm sure the right page is the burials; it's labeled as such on many of the pages. Also, I think in this record, "Do" is Ditto, meaning the same date as the above one. But I can't find any pages with the left side labeled with more than the dates.

John Empoliti

Sure, probably it’s just dittoing the date. I was trying to find the word deceased or something like it.

Darris Williams

It seems that the "Image Group Information" is incomplete for the images in DGS 7570520. Image 2 and 4 shows the volume number 11B. Surprisingly the catalog enter for microfilm 585401 (on image 1) does not give all the details. The original records were filmed at the London Metropolitan Archives and their new call numbers are included in the FamilySearch Catalog entry.

The London Metropolitan Archives website shows that there are two types of registers covering the same years; registers and rough registers. The volume number on DGS 757052 image 2 and four matches with the old numbering system for London Metropolitan Archives as the "Rough Register". https://search.lma.gov.uk/scripts/mwimain.dll/200056619/LMA_DESCRIPTION/REFD/DRO~2F004~2FA~2F01~2F011/$/WEB_DETAIL?JUMP&ERRMSG=~5bLMA_OPAC~5dNORECORD.TXT&DATABASE=LMA_DESCRIPTION&SHARE_SESSID=LMA_SHARE_SESSID

The images published on Ancestry for Enfield appear to be for the "Register of baptisms and burials" not the "Rough Register" which we have at FamilySearch.

Details about the differences between the two register types can be seen by comparing what is on Ancestry versus FamilySearch but the details are not explicitly stated.

The names on the right facing page of DGS 7570520 image 56 are burials. The left side image does not match details in the parish register. I have not found anything to clearly state what might be included in a "rough register" but expect it to be a rough draft.