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Old 27-10-18, 17:29
ElizabethHerts ElizabethHerts is offline
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Default Baptisms - attendance of both parents?

A baptism c. 1860

When a child was baptised, did the vicar or whoever perform the ceremony check the details given about the parents?

Did both parents have to attend the baptism?
If a father was in the army or navy I have always assumed that a baptism could take place without his attending.

We have the scenario of a child being baptised and the mother stating that the father was in the navy. The father has not been found on the census or marriage record.
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Old 27-10-18, 18:35
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Whether they actually attended or not, and as a religious ceremony, I would have thought that the godparents were more important, the vicar would certainly be interested in finding out who the father was.
I'm not very good about the rules under the New Poor Law, but settlement would depend on the father's place of settlement, and I imagine that even with the Poor Law Unions, the vicar was at the front line to ensure that there were no unnecessary mouths to fill.
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Old 27-10-18, 18:38
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Was the baptism somewhere like Portsmouth? There would have been plenty of irregular unions there, and very easy to pretend you were married, until they started to check up.
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Old 27-10-18, 18:39
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I have one baptism on my tree where both parents were dead. There is no mention of this in the register and I have no idea who brought up the child or took them to be baptised.

I would have thought there might be any baptisms where the father did not attend because of long working hours.

I would think it's pot luck whether the vicar could care less (or otherwise) about the information he took from the 'parents'. Look at those baptisms of dozens or even hundreds of babies on one day in some parishes - I would think in some cases it might be 'anything goes'!
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Old 27-10-18, 18:50
ElizabethHerts ElizabethHerts is offline
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The baptism was at New Swindon.

This is part of some group research. I have been wondering whether the father named on the baptism actually existed. He was said to be a Captain in the Merchant Navy but I can't find a record of him. Also he had the same name as the mother's father, with a middle named thrown in. So the mother still had the same surname as she was born with.
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Old 27-10-18, 18:52
ElizabethHerts ElizabethHerts is offline
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I am of the opinion that the mother was attempting to hide illegitimacy but someone said surely the vicar or however checked the facts, and like you, Merry, I doubt that sometimes they could really be bothered.
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Old 27-10-18, 18:56
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I replied to this but my reply has vanished!

I think info given at baptism is only slightly more reliable than info given at birth registration. In either case, no one would check it. The registrar held a fine over your head for wilfully lying, the Vicar held eternal damnation over you.

OC
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Old 27-10-18, 19:34
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Quote:
He was said to be a Captain in the Merchant Navy
Living in Swindon? lol!!
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Old 27-10-18, 20:19
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When best mate's great aunt registered the birth of her child (she subsequently married as a spinster) she named the father with identical details to those of her brother
We assume she had already given her own surname and then had to invent a father on the spot.
Who you lie to depends on who knows you. GGGgranny gave true father's name to registrar, when she registered little Edmund's birth. Vicar knew perfectly well Louisa wasn't married, so Edmund grew up as a Skillings, not an Edwards.
New Swindon sounds like a growing place, where you could say what you liked, with little fear of being found out.


Did the child live to get married themselves? Or does anyone have the mother's death certificate?
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Old 27-10-18, 20:47
ElizabethHerts ElizabethHerts is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenix View Post

Did the child live to get married themselves? Or does anyone have the mother's death certificate?
As far as we can see the mother never married. The daughter in question seems to have married under a variant first name. Her sister, born later, married once but cohabited after a divorce. We are awaiting the PDF of the birth registration for her.
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