An Old Laymans View !! Baptisms and Christenings and Parish Church Registers >From 1537 to 1837 or so the surviving Parish Church Registers, and their surviving Bishops Transcripts are often the only surviving record of many peoples lives. Most such Parish registers are headed Baptisms, Marriages, Burials. They are not normally headed Births, Christenings, Banns, Weddings, Deaths. Some of these events are also randomly recorded sometimes in the former registers and of course there are always exceptions for a wide variety of reasons. Genealogists and historians most often use what evidence of these past events still exists to rebuild family events and to reconstruct who was who locally at various given times. The dates given in such registers are invaluable guide lines, some correct, some false, some mistaken. We need to try to find and record Births, Baptisms [/Christenings], Banns, Marriages, Wills Dated, Deaths, Burials [ Funerals/ Cremations/ Memorial Services, Grants of Probates etc. If we can achieve a "Full House" of such recorded events we are doing exceptionally well since they in toto will provide pretty conclusive evidence of actual events that did take place as recorded. It seems to me that we should record the lot, and that all our records should be full and accurate as the originals allow. Those originals will always vary dependant on many many factors of change over time, of literacy, of fashion, of faith, and even of politics. The informal Hatch, Match, and Despatch event dates are normally the ones that matter most. Have fun finding and recording them, Best wishes and Happy New Year, Tim