Yes it is possiible to obtain a baptismal certificate through a church. The usual way is to write/phone/e mail the church of interest and ask for what you want. If no response, then the church is busy and not interesed in Family History queries. If there is a response then a donation to the church is always welcome. If writing I usually include a stamped addressed envelope.
Yes, baptismal certs will have godparent/s listed, presuming there are godparent/s. Sometimes gives date and place of birth as well as parents' names and sometimes occupation of father.
Yes, baptismal certs will have godparent/s listed, presuming there are godparent/s. Sometimes gives date and place of birth as well as parents' names and sometimes occupation of father.
Janet
This will only be true if the church still has a record of who the godparents were. Our baptism registers don't all have this info listed (even for the years when column was provided for the purpose :() so if someone were to ask for a certificate for an old entry it might not include godparents.
I suppose we should establish the year of baptism first before suggesting anything else, as that will be very cruical as to how much information is on the Bap cert, but I was thinking in terms of post 1890ish for baptismal certs because if it is going to be pre 1837 and therefore into parish records, then the information is probably only going to be ....... son/daughter of ........ was baptised ......, so my assumption was much later than that. In any case if you are into pre 1837 for baptismal records, then you would be going through a CRO for the baptisms. The bap certs I have for post 1900 do give the information I suggested and I obtained mine by post from the churches of my interest, with one visit to a church where I looked at the register myself and obtained a photocopy. May be able to photograph with a digital camera today? But it may well be that not all churches have all the information, and some churches have deposited their baptismal records at the local County Record Office. There was no requirement to do this, so finding them at CRO's will be hit and miss.
Thanks for all your replies, I have just found my wife's Baptism Cert........this has got me thinking!, could be a better source than a Birth Certificate or as well as.........her one has details of Godparents on it.
I will try for my own first going forward and see what happens.
My baptismal certificate gives my parents' names, including my mother's maiden name, the church and place of baptism, my father's occupation, two godparents and my date of birth as well as the baptismal date, and it was issued to me when I asked for it for college purposes age 18. So it sounds as though you may either be lucky or not so lucky.
The original certificate, filled out at the time, may well be more comprehensive than the information in the parish register, which would be the source for a later certificate.
Christine
Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...
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