Lancashire Non-Conformist Church Records, Birth Record Question

jonirjones1

Many of the Lancashire Non-Conformist Church Records have births that are registered instead of recording a baptism or christening. It seems that the "County" field is supposed to be the county where the baptism took place, which is not recorded in a birth record. Because of this, I have been leaving the county field blank even when a birth county is recorded. Should I be including the birth county instead?

Here's the batch I'm currently reviewing: MSL2-MJ3

Thank you!

Susan Ann Mullen

Please index the place recorded as location. The Project Instructions do say to index birth records and a location is given.

Found this bit of added information. " In the Project Instructions under What to Remember, bullet point 16 says, "Birth and christening records should be indexed with the Baptism event type."

Thanks for letting us clarify!

CJohns7

Thanks for your question @jonirjones1, and to all those helping with this question.

In addition to the other answers given here, the Project Instructions under What to Remember about This Project, bullet point 16 says, "Birth and christening records should be indexed with the Baptism event type."

Following these directions, if the birth county is recorded for a birth, please index it in the County field, along with the other birth information.

Thank you, again, for your question, and for your desire to index these records correctly.

LarryClark43

I just spent some time looking at this batch. The county field does come before the baptism field but it is not designated as county of baptism, just County .

The instructions state:

• Index the following types of records: baptism, christening, birth, marriage, burial, and death records, regardless of the county the records may be from. 

From everything I read I would say that the county should be included and that the indexer has done it correctly.

I am not an expert so this is just my opinion.

Hope that helps.

Melissa S Himes

That is a very tricky and excellent question! The event form selection is only for Baptism. Usually they are titled Birth/Baptism/Christening.

The examples both show to use the place of baptism. We don't know if the place of baptism was anywhere near the birthplace. If the record owners want the place of Baptism, then we can't really index the birth place. Some of these births are registered years after they occurred (i.e., born 7 day of August 1831, registered 23 day of February 1837).

I'm going to tag a few moderators - @annewandering @AndLinda @Mirevo to make sure they see this image and perhaps can get an official answer. Please hold on to your batch so they will be able to see it. There definitely needs to be some clarification and it will help the project managers move forward on the different parts of the project by seeing this type of image.

AndLinda

@Melissa S Himes, asking for an official answer for you.

ThompsonWandaPearl

Thank you for your question, jonirjones1. Also thank you for the responses.

For the project in question, UK, England, Lancashire—Nonconformist Church Records, 1647–1996 [Part B] [MSL2-MJ3], Bullet point 16 under "What to Remember About This Project" states: Birth and christening records should be indexed with the Baptism event type. 

Since that bullet point says that Births will be indexed on the Baptism template, you can use the county shown on the document as the birth county. The baptism date information will be marked <blank>, but other information can be entered in the appropriate fields. Thank you for asking.