Judith wrote: > My first foray into Parish registers has left me scratching my head > and I'm hoping someone may have an idea about the following. > > Parish register for Ivinghoe Bucks, 1823 Baptism I have on one page > on 3 September the baptism for a William Wells (with no birth date) > born to Thomas & Elizabeth Wells of Ivinghoe with his occpation > being a Labourer. > > Then on the next page of the register I have 7 December William > (born Aug 9 1823) to Thomas and Elizabeth Wells of Ivinghoe with > his occupation being a Labourer. The only difference between the > two baptism records is the minister who performed the baptism. > > Has anyone else come across this at all? Is it possible they just > decided to baptise William twice? It's not too unusual and there could be several reasons for it. The most likely would appear to be that William was a sickly child who was baptised privately, proved to be more robust than anticipated and the second date was when he was received into the church. A private baptism is noted most of the time, but not all ways. The date received into the church isn't noted most of the time. Where it is noted, it doesn't always have "received into church" beside the entry. It very much depends on the incumbent and/or whoever was making up the registers. Other reasons might be that the parents had forgotten, or the incumbent was rounding up all those children who hadn't been baptised. However, given the close proximity in the register of the two events, I don't think either applies in your case.