Why Can I Not Find An Individual In A Parish Record
I have moved this question into the discussions. When answering it, please refer to Deveney Herb and not me as I just moved it over. Thank You.
Hi,
I am new to the group and wanted to jump in with a question about parish records from a specific place:
- St. Mary's Parish, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. I have accessed the parish records at FindMyPast.com and FS, with no results for an individual that was born in 1855. The individual baptism does appear in the GRO Indexes, (Vol. 6a, p. 111) and I have ordered the pdf record. However, my question is regarding why I am unable to find the individual in the parish registers. I have found a sibling in 1852, as well as his parents baptisms in 1823 and 1824. And is there any way to know if this particular parish register (for 1855ish) is published online? Thanks,
Kind Regards,
Deveney Herb
Comments
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My initial thoughts are that you appear to be confusing a civil birth record with a church baptism record. The GRO is a civil birth record. This was required by law. A baptism record is at the option, usually, of the parents. This may not happen for a number of reasons - the most common being that the parents belonged to another faith. The fact that a sibling was baptised in 1852 could mean a change in faith between 1852 and 1855. In my tree I have a family where several siblings were baptised as infants and then there is a long gap before the last two siblings were baptised. The last two were teenagers when baptised based on census records. I am guessing that the family fell away from the Church of England but returned some years later. Other explanations are possible of course.
For more information about St Marys, Shrewsbury, try looking in the FS Wiki
Another possibility is GENUKI
Please let us know how you get on and to ask further questions.
Regards
Graham Buckell
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