Oh, I love 8h. I found a record once for a child who I believe may have been my 5th g.grandfather, only no name was recorded, only the parents' names were there. The entry was scrawled across the page, too, as though somebody had been in a terrible hurry when they wrote it. :( Cheers, Lynne. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gordon Johnson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 12:40 AM Subject: [ABERDEEN] Missing OPR records > Recent postings referred to baptismal records being missing in the OPRs. > Here are some of the reasons for this: > 1. An entire register book has gone missing/has been destroyed in > various ways (flood/fire/mice/damp/etc.) > 2. One of more pages have been cut/torn from the register book (usually > by a genealogist determined to have the original record; this also > happens with newspapers). > 3. One or more pages have been damaged (torn, damaged by mould) > 4. One or more pages have had entries lost by an ink spill covering part > of the page. > 5. Fading of the ink, to the point of illegibility. > 6. Poor handwriting, resulting in an entry being credited to the wrong > surname/forename > 7. The entry is not in the correct date order, and is in another part of > the register. This should be findable in the indexes, but may not make > it clear that it is not in its correct place. > 8. The entry is simply not there. This can be: > 8a - parents refused to pay for the entry to be registered. There was > also a short period of taxation on entries which had the same effect. > 8b - church official forgot to enter it in the register. > 8c - The child was baptised in another church denomination. > 8d - The parents did not believe in baptism, so no baptism occurred. > 8e - The session clerk disappeared before entering the baptism (One > register mentions that the previous session clerk had suddenly emigrated). > 8f - The minister/Session clerk got the family name wrong > (mis-spelled/mis-heard/wrongly copied from notes/etc.) > 8g - The entry uses a gaelic version of the child's name (or an English > version). e.g Peter/Patrick. > 8h - the minister forgot the child's name, and left it blank in the > register- quite common! > The above will do for starters. Others will have discovered more examples! > Gordon Johnson. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message