Woodward Family Tree 1700-2006 England

WOODWARD FAMILY TREE



		Contents Home page What's new Family members Family tree Origin of the name Related families Places they lived A guide to baptisms A guide to marriages A guide to burials A guide to the calendar

A Guide to Baptisms

Parish records started in 1538, but only about 800 registers have survived from this date. The records began with the use of single sheets of paper, but from 1598 books were introduced under an Order made by Queen Elizabeth I.

Only the paper entries from 1558 onwards (the start of Elizabeth's reign) were copied into the new books, which means that in many parishes the records for the period 1538 to 1558 have been lost.

The clergy also had to send a copy of the parish record to the Bishop every year. This copy is known as 'the Bishop's Transcript'.

The Bishop's Transcripts were supposed to be prepared alongside the parish register, but often this didn't happen. In some parishes the Bishop's copy was the original record with the parish record being updated later. In other parishes it was the other way around; it was down to the individual clergy. Making up the record at a later date naturally resulted in errors and omissions. For this reason if you can't find a record in the parish record you should always check the Bishop's Transcript as well.

Missing records

Many records were lost during the English Civil War. Between 1640 and 1660 it is estimated that one-sixth of all baptisms are missing from the records and many children were not baptised during this period. A flood of baptisms took place after the Reformation in 1660. Additionally, records were lost through negligence on the part of the vicar, who failed to keep the books in good condition. Ironically many clergy changed the old wooden church chests for ones made of metal in the belief that they would better protect the contents, but as metal doesn't 'breath' like wood they retained the damp and the records were even more prone to damage.

General statistics

The introduction of parish records coincided with a huge rise in the population of England from 2 million in 1541 to 17 million by 1851. Life expectancy at birth in 1700 was 37.1 yrs; by 1820 it was 40 years; by 1901 it was 49 years, by 1950 it was 70 years. Today it is 78 years.

In the 1700s mobility was common, especially for agricultural labourers. Movement was usually contained within a twenty mile radius or less, although the building of the canals in the late 1700s and the railways in the early 1800s meant that families moved quite long distances, following the work. This movement affected where the children of a family were born and baptised. Fathers were often shown in the records as being a 'Sojourner' - i.e. a traveller.

Between 1700 and 1800, 5% of children died within the first few days of birth and 20% died before age 10. Many infants who died at birth or shortly afterwards were not baptised which may account for a long period between children being born to a family. A gap in the regular two to three year birth cycle usually means a stillbirth or miscarriage. Two children shown as being baptised to the same parents usually means the first child died, although there can be two sets of parents with the same names living in the same area.

Most first born children were baptised in the mother's home parish; second and subsequent children were usually christened in the parish in which the parents lived.

During the 80 years proceeding the Second World War (1939-45), the average size of English families declined steadily; 7 children in 1860; 6 in 1880; 4 in 1900; 3.5 in 1910, and 2.8 by 1920. Today it is 1.6. The average age at baptism increased from one week in the middle of the 17th century to one month by the middle of the 18th century.

Illegitimacy reached 5% in 1590; 6% by 1800 and 7% by 1845. Entries of illegitimate children before 1813 normally name only the mother. The name of the alleged father is sometimes added (as required by an Act of 1634) but not always, as often the mother refused to give the name. In many cases it was the parish that had to support the woman and child. In 1733 the Bastardy Act ordered that fathers of illegitimate children should be committed to jail unless they made arrangements to indemnify the parish for the upkeep of the child. In most cases this meant that they were forced to marry the expectant mother.

Important point about the calendar

Up until 1752 in England, new years day was celebrated on 25th March not 1st January; eg. December 1750 would be followed immediately by January 1750. It is therefore easy to dismiss baptism records because they seem to be at the wrong time.

An example of how this can lead to a baptism being ignored would be where a couple were married in May 1750, and their first child was born 9 months later, ie. February 1750. The baptism would probably be in early March 1750, (what we would now call March 1751). On first sight the baptism would be ignored as being nearly three months before the parents were married and in the belief that the child belonged to another couple with the same christian names, when in fact it was perfectly in order.

The changeover to new years day being on 1st January is not such a problem when viewing the original church record, as the events are in the correct order in the parish record. For events that occurred during 1752 (the changeover year) you are sometimes alerted to the problem by the date being recorded as 1751/2, but not always. When viewing the pages on a microfiche you may think that the pages have been photographed in the wrong order and the problem can be overlooked completely by accident when the events are listed in date order, such as with the International Genealogical Index (IGI).

Another problem is that in 1752, 11 days were removed from the calendar. This is because the old calendar used before 1752 was based on a year of 365.25 days, which was too long resulting in the calendar year becoming out of step with the solar year. The change to the new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) meant that the 2nd September 1752 was followed immediately by the 14 September for that year alone. Consequently, there are no parish records for the period 3 September to 13 September 1752 (inclusive). (To find out more about how the calendar evolved see Calendar.htm)

Format of the entries

It is important to remember that the parish records do not usually record the actual birth, only the date of a religious baptism or christening. Records from the 16th, 17th and early 18th century often include only the child's name and the father's name. A typical example would be

The age of a person being baptised wasn't normally shown until 1813 onwards. Adults were sometimes baptised when they joined the church for the first time or before getting married, as some vicars insisted that they be 'brought into the church' before he would marry them.

Before 1813 baptisms were usually recorded with marriages or burials. From 1813 Church of England baptisms were entered in a separate book which had columns, and these are much easier to read. The new entries contain the names of both parents (where known) and the age of the child.

Other records

Non-conformist registers are only common after 1780 and relate to approx. 6% of all baptisms.

Civil Registration, introduced in 1837, set statutory requirements for the recording of all births, but not baptisms (religious events) which were purely a matter for the Church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon Church) have compiled the International Genealogical Index (IGI), an index of baptisms taken from information contained in the parish records. The index contains the names of over 400 million people, baptised between around 1550 to 1900. Copies on CD-Rom are usually available in most libraries and county record offices, but the index can also be accessed on-line.

The index is a wonderful aid to getting started, but it is only an index. Any database the size of the IGI will have errors and omissions and all records should be verified from other sources. However, genealogists owe a great debt to the Mormon's for this wonderful resource.