In a message dated 2/7/2011 3:53:14 P.M. Central Standard Time, [email protected] writes: [email protected] wrote: > I have several times come across a note in the side of the record. "P.B." > Am I right in presuming this means privately baptized or private baptism? Yes, you are :)) It's also known as a half baptism. > I have also come across the comment "received into the Church" and it gives > a date - later than the baptism. What does this mean? It sometimes > appears when there has been a private baptism. A private baptism is usually where a child is poorly at birth and not expected to survive. In order to prevent the child's soul being put at risk, anyone could conduct an emergency (private) baptism, be it the child's father or another relative, the midwife, a family friend, the parish clerk, the incumbent. If the child survived, the baptism was completed by being publicly received into the church. Sometimes private baptisms are noted in the register, sometimes not which is why you find will find, as you have, the receiving date without the private baptism. Sometimes it's entered but not annotated as a private baptism. Sometimes both halves of the baptism are noted but neither is annotated causing confusion to us researchers as it could also mean one child baptized twice (which shouldn't happen, in theory at least) or that there were two children with the same name and the first one had died or they might have been cousins. I found the above explanations very enlightening. The important parish baptismal records also provide some better understanding of the historic difficulties of giving birth to both mother and child and the health of babies.. Thank you.... Steade

[email protected] wrote: > I found the above explanations very enlightening. The important parish > baptismal records also provide some better understanding of the historic > difficulties of giving birth to both mother and child and the health of babies.. > > Thank you.... YW :)) For a good insight into life in a village or town, have a look at the Guardians of the Poor account books, if you can. They do vary in quality and quantity but worth perusing. They aren't available online for the most part though. Some have been filmed by the LDS but whether they'd be available from a local LDS FHC, I don't know. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Greinton and Clutton, SOM Asst OPC for Ashcott and Shapwick, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk http://www.savethegurkhas.co.uk/