<<snipped>> "what if he was just a simple rural farmer who didn't care much for religion and never went to church... or even to town for that matter?" If that were the case, and he wasn't a member of a parish, he probably would have been buried on his farm without a headstone.  <<snipped>> I'm not 100% clear on all the various laws, but I'm fairly certain that burial in unconsecrated ground on a farm in England, in the 1700s/1800s, would be illegal. It's much more likely that your 3G-GF is an incomer so his baptism (and it is not certain there would have been one) took place elsewhere - possibly where his own father was buried, although again, nothing is certain until you find it for certain. You are right to start with Yealmpton and work outwards, as it were. Adrian B

Not everyone was baptised in the past. I've often seen people being baptised just before they were married. As well as family job lots where three or four children were baptised on the same day. Or the parents were just plain lazy and never bothered. Bearing in mind also that some church Parish Registers were destroyed or proper records not kept. Not finding a baptism could be for any reason you could possibly think of. I would suggest the only sure way to find a missing baptism is sitting in the Exeter Family History Centre and comb through the local village Parish Registers systematically. Takes time, but it often worth while if the baptism exists. Then not everyone is able to visit Exeter. -----Original Message----- From: Adrian Bruce Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 8:41 PM To: devon@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [DEV] Finding the impossible <<snipped>> "what if he was just a simple rural farmer who didn't care much for religion and never went to church... or even to town for that matter?" If that were the case, and he wasn't a member of a parish, he probably would have been buried on his farm without a headstone. <<snipped>> I'm not 100% clear on all the various laws, but I'm fairly certain that burial in unconsecrated ground on a farm in England, in the 1700s/1800s, would be illegal. It's much more likely that your 3G-GF is an incomer so his baptism (and it is not certain there would have been one) took place elsewhere - possibly where his own father was buried, although again, nothing is certain until you find it for certain. You are right to start with Yealmpton and work outwards, as it were. Adrian B ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message