Hi Bob, Have just seen an answer from Charani re; your query on baptisms all on the same day. There is another reason for this as well. Especially when a parent or both had died, for the one left to look after them, needing Parish Relief to do so, the children had to have been baptised in the parish first. If the parents hadn't been churchgoers, the births may have been recorded in the Government Registration, as it was getting more enforced by then. Compulsory by 1874. I had one, where the parents didn't marry till six years after the birth of the first child, then three of them were baptised on the same day, with the ages of each noted by the vicar. Yours in Genealogy, Jan, in sunny QLD, Australia

geejay wrote: > If the parents hadn't been churchgoers, the births may have been recorded in the > Government Registration, as it was getting more enforced by then. Compulsory by > 1874. Civil registration was compulsory from 1 July 1837. It's a common myth that it wasn't compulsory until 1874. Initially the registrar had to find all the newborns and record the births. If he didn't, the parents were supposed to register the birth. This had to be done within 6 weeks (42 days) of the birth but there was no penalty for not doing so until 1874 when the onus for reporting births changed from the registrar to the parents. Failure to register within 6 weeks, resulted in a fine. This is why there was a rise in the number of registrations and why you sometimes find a birthday being celebrated on a day other than the registered one :) Parents had massaged the DoB to avoid the fine. Have a look for Guy Etchells Framland site. He has the relevant Acts on there. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Ashcott, Shapwick, Greinton and Clutton, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk