Ireland, Armagh—Church Records, 1740–1913 [Part B] [M3KF-KZZ]

pajeck

The record shows the childs surname as different from that of the parents; ie. "Mary Smith of Patrick and Bridget Kelly" while I'm thinking that this may be an adopted child, this could also be read as "Mary Smith of Patrick Smith and Bridget Kelly". Is there any giudence on this?

A van Helsdingen

Common-sense says that Kelly is the mother's maiden name and that Smith is implied to be Patrick's surname. Have a look at other entries; if this is common then the scribe is probably saving themselves having to repeat the surname of the child and father; if not then perhaps someone else is going on (or the scribe just made a mistake). A genuine adoption would probably be noted in the margin or there would be some words inserted to indicate that the parents are not biological.

But you will need to read the project instructions; each project handles this sort of situation differently.

Melissa S Himes

The child's surname wouldn't be indexed on most of these records in the batch. Notice in the example in the Project Instructions that the children's surname is left off the index.

John of Patrick McCoy and Judith Daily - a surname is not indexed for the child, John.

The field help also says that IF there is a surname indexed for the child, it can be used for the parents.

Field help: If a surname was recorded for the child but not for the parents, index the surname of the child for both of the parents. This is an exception to the General Indexing Guidelines and should not be applied to other projects.

Based on the other records on this image, I would index Mary Smith and the Kelly's just as you have indexed Eliza Miles and Ellen Shanley. But, if you don't feel comfortable indexing the father's name in these situations, then you could mark his surname blank. Usually when Patrick and Bridget Kelly is written, we index Kelly as the surname for both. However, when it says Patrick Kelly and his wife, Bridget, then we would not index Kelly as Bridget's surname.

(They could be married women being baptized.)

pajeck

Thank you both