Question

[cmortimer]

I was doing some research on my grandfather and his brother. On the birth record sheets they have the same mother. On their baptism record they don't. Can a baby be registered by someone other than the mother? or are baptism records not as reliable?

Some clarification on this situation would be greatly appriciated.

Cheers
Clare

[Vicky the Viking]

its not unusual for mistakes to be made on baptism records.
I have a case - though rather older than yours - where 3 children were baptised at the same time, giving the same parents. Dad was on his second marriage and only the youngest child was from his second wife.

I also have a birth certificate that's not worth anything as far as tracing biological roots is concerned, but that would have been a deliberate attempt to mislead, not a mistake.

Of course there could also be a genuine reason - in your case, is it at all possible that one of them was actually adopted?

[cmortimer]

Thanks Vicky,

I hope it is just a mistake. I hadn't really thought about adoption, but it might be worth investigating.

Thanks again.
Clare

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Hi Clare,

I have found that ANYTHING written down is a prime candidate for error, be it a civil registration cert, an entry in a parish register or a census return.

My grandmother's marriage certificate has her name as McDonald, when it was really McDonough.
I have both the birth cert & baptismal entry for a great- grandfather - the baptismal date was a few days before the date of birth on his birth certificate.
Other people have marriage certs with fathers' names transposed etc.

Jay

[cmortimer]

I feel a bit better now.

Thanks Janet

[Vicky the Viking]

Clare, you don't say how the mothers names differ - and please don't feel you have to post the details if you don't want to, or if they are still alive. Is it possible it is actually the same person?

I have an interesting anomaly in my grandmother's family - her mother changed her surname between babies 5 & 6! I wondered for a long time whether it was a potential skeleton, or a registrar's mistake, but there was a very good explanation once I'd dug a bit deeper.
First 5 babies give mother's maiden name as Agnes Tovey. Next baby she's Agnes Powell.
She'd married as Tovey & the date & place of birth was consistent on all the censuses - so I was reasonably sure dad hadn't remarried [she was born 200 miles away; not very likely a new wife also named Agnes was born in the same place & in the same year]
But I found out that HER mum had been widowed & remarried - but when Agnes was little. So I was a bit surprised to see her suddenly start using her step-father's name some 30 years later. But baby 6 was the first one born after her mother died, so I expect that's what triggered the change of name.

[Phoenix]

Someone has invented an entirely new family for one of my ancestors, on the basis that her mother is shown as Mary, not Sarah.

My gut feeling is that the vicar was deaf and misheard Sary as Mary. he made this mistake for other family members (a Sarah Ann buried as a Mary Ann).

I hate it when doubts are raised in this way, but suspect that an awful lot of discrepancies are just mistakes.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

I have a couple of cases in Norfolk PR, pre 1837, where the mother's first name is different for one or two baptisms (in the middle of the family). I have
Elizabeth becoming Mary and an Ann becoming an Elizabeth.
I think the vicar possibly miscopied when writing up, or had to rely on memory and made an error.
Alternatively, the ladies concerned could have had a middle name, I suppose.

Jay

[Little Nell]

My gt x 3 grandparents had many children. My gt x 3 grandmother is recorded on their baptisms variously as Susanna, Suzanne, Anne, Susan and Susannah. I know she was the same woman!