\the word in in fact Spurious and means bastard which in turn refers to a mixed marriage between a catholic and a protestant A stranger is someone who does not belong to the same parish and as a rule these baptisms referred to between different religions often refer to a stranger, which does suggest to me that they did come from a different parish to have their child baptised and try and avoid the stigma remember if you were classed as illegitimate you could not become certain things in society, ( best way for me to word it ) and other things of course um multis aliis quæ nunc perscribere longum est =with many other matters that it would be tedious now to write in full (i.e., etc., etc., etc.) and generally I have found this is what they mean in a parish register. have the time I feel it was a fancy way of writing etc etc etc ........... Cheers for now Cara