1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. SOC.GENEALOGY.IRELAND

  • Why are recorded birth dates AFTER baptism?

    From [email protected]@21:1/5 to All on Sun May 24 07:06:52 2020
    I've seen a lot of births in my family from 1864-1900 recorded with dates weeks or months after baptism. Why is this happening? Did it cost to register the required civil paperwork and you waited until you could pay? Did the farmer's not keep track of
    the actual dates back in the day? (parents were illiterate based on "his mark" notations in records)

    An an example, in my G-Grandfather's family there was a civil birth recorded as 1 Sep 1875, but he was baptized on 1 August 1875 and he recorded his birthday as 22 Aug 1880 on his citizenship application.

    Another brother's birth was recorded as 12 Sep 1879 and his baptism was a month earlier on 21 Sep 1879. He used 12 Sep 1882 on his citizenship application though.

    What's with the "fluid" birthdays?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From RoddyMcCorley@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon May 25 17:13:57 2020
    On 5/24/2020 10:06 AM, [email protected] wrote:
    I've seen a lot of births in my family from 1864-1900 recorded with dates weeks or months after baptism. Why is this happening? Did it cost to register the required civil paperwork and you waited until you could pay? Did the farmer's not keep track
    of the actual dates back in the day? (parents were illiterate based on "his mark" notations in records)

    An an example, in my G-Grandfather's family there was a civil birth recorded as 1 Sep 1875, but he was baptized on 1 August 1875 and he recorded his birthday as 22 Aug 1880 on his citizenship application.

    Another brother's birth was recorded as 12 Sep 1879 and his baptism was a month earlier on 21 Sep 1879. He used 12 Sep 1882 on his citizenship application though.

    What's with the "fluid" birthdays?



    Just a guess, but probably more attention was paid to baptism than to registering with civil authorities. The baptism info comes from
    handwritten parish registers and is quite specific to the date. The
    civil registrations I have seen often give the year and a three month
    period (why I don't know - maybe privacy?). I don't know whether it cost
    to register a child - probably not given the poverty in most areas.

    We always celebrated my late mother's birthday as August 25, 1912. All
    her documents state it was August 4, 1912. I guess it really did not
    matter to her. We laugh about it.

    --
    Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish
    childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

    Pennsylvania - Tá sé difriúil anseo.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From cecilia@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue May 26 08:13:05 2020
    On Mon, 25 May 2020 17:13:57 -0400, RoddyMcCorley
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    [...] The
    civil registrations I have seen often give the year and a three month
    period (why I don't know - maybe privacy?).[...]

    Year and quarter-year reflect the indexing periods.

    See sections 15 and 17 of http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1863/act/90/enacted/en/print.html
    to see that Ireland was the same as England and Wales, for which there
    is a description at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Register_Office_for_England_and_Wales#The_GRO_indexes

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Steve Hayes@21:1/5 to All on Tue May 26 14:10:35 2020
    On Sun, 24 May 2020 07:06:52 -0700 (PDT), [email protected] wrote:

    I've seen a lot of births in my family from 1864-1900 recorded with
    dates weeks or months after baptism. Why is this happening? Did it
    cost to register the required civil paperwork and you waited until you
    could pay? Did the farmer's not keep track of the actual dates back
    in the day? (parents were illiterate based on "his mark" notations in
    records)

    An an example, in my G-Grandfather's family there was a civil birth
    recorded as 1 Sep 1875, but he was baptized on 1 August 1875 and he
    recorded his birthday as 22 Aug 1880 on his citizenship application.

    Another brother's birth was recorded as 12 Sep 1879 and his baptism
    was a month earlier on 21 Sep 1879. He used 12 Sep 1882 on his
    citizenship application though.

    What's with the "fluid" birthdays?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Steve Hayes@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri May 29 10:52:45 2020
    On Sun, 24 May 2020 07:06:52 -0700 (PDT), [email protected] wrote:
    Another brother's birth was recorded as 12 Sep 1879 and his baptism
    was a month earlier on 21 Sep 1879. He used 12 Sep 1882 on his
    citizenship application though.

    That actually looks like the right way round. It could be explained
    where it is wrong by the priest writing in the wrong column.


    --
    Steve Hayes
    Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
    http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)