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  • Baptised Dead?

    Found this in Freereg:

    County Norfolk
    Place Foulsham Church Holy Innocents Register Number708
    DateOfBirth Baptism Date15 Nov 1874
    Forename Frederick JamesSex M
    Father Forename Frederick
    Mother Forename Charlotte Anna
    Father Surname FENN
    Abode Foulsham Father Occupation Builder Notes Dead FileNumber1089

    any thoughts? If child was dead why would he be baptised?
    Last edited by Little Nell; 05-07-09, 17:59.
    ~ with love from Little Nell~
    Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

  • #2
    I thought that apart from Mormons the practise of baptising the dead went out in the early days of christianity?

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    • #3
      The Mormons don't baptise the dead, but may baptise a living person on behalf of a dead person.

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      • #4
        Unless the child later died and the vicar put comments in the registers?

        Remembering: Cuthbert Gregory 1889 - 1916, George Arnold Connelly 1886 - 1917, Thomas Lowe Davenport 1890 - 1917, Roland Davenport Farmer 1885 - 1916, William Davenport Sheffield 1879 - 1915, Cuthbert Gregory 1918 - 1944

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        • #5
          s'cuse me yes, proxy baptisms....:o

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          • #6
            Hallo. I've found the child's birth reg index Dec 1874 and his death reg Sep 1875 so the dead note must have been added afterwards.
            ~ with love from Little Nell~
            Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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            • #7
              I have seen baptisms of dead children recorded in the Record Office at Lewes, East Sussex. I can't recall dates, as they weren't 'mine'.

              Perhaps it was so that the child could have a Christian burial in a certain part of the churchyard?

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              • #8
                Are you sure it doesn't mean the father was dead?

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                • #9
                  I wondered that, Mary.

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                  • #10
                    Yes, that's how I read it - father was dead at the time of the child's baptism.

                    From what I have read, the Christian church does not baptise the dead. I think we have had this discussion before and came to the conclusion that NOWADAYS a vicar or priest might baptise a dead baby but this is strictly not church practice and is done as part of helping with grief.

                    OC

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                    • #11
                      Probable marriage of parents is on freebmd in June quarter 1874.

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                      • #12
                        It notes the father is dead not the infant. ;)
                        Cheers
                        Guy
                        Guy passed away October 2022

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                        • #13
                          Both parents are still alive in 1881, so it must be a note, added presumably by the incumbent after the baby had died.

                          One Norfolk incumbent got his own copy of the 1861 census for the village and then annotated it as a visiting book, with what had happened to parishioners who had died or moved away.
                          Phoenix - with charred feathers
                          Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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                          • #14
                            I have seen the note "dead" added at the end of a baptism record, usually these were private baptisms. We should also bear in mind that vicars sometimes entered "blocks of events" into a register and so there was perhaps a time gap between the event having taken place and it being written up.
                            The latest baptism (date wise) I've seen, with the note "dead" added, was a 1940's baptism performed in the child's home, by the doctor who delivered her. She was one of twins and the other child was stillborn. (All this iinformation was recorded in the baptism register.)
                            The burial register recorded that the child lived for 30 minutes and that both were buried together.

                            Jay
                            Janet in Yorkshire



                            Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                            • #15
                              thanks everyone. It would be helpful if vicars dated their notes, wouldn't it?!
                              ~ with love from Little Nell~
                              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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