Hello Listers I have just discovered an ancestor whose baptism entry is shown as 'Private' - one other entry on the other side of the book is also Private; and there is another previous entry, which is a few pages back which is shown as Private, followed by brackets which appear to contain the words 'in danger'. My ancestor was George Hogg baptised 13th August 1859 in St Leornard's, Shoreditch. If anyone can shed any light on this I would appreciate it. Many thanks. Regards, Chris

Chris This often refers to a baptism that was carried out in the home, perhaps because of some medical condition, or if the child is thought likely to die. No doubt there might be other reasons too. David On 16 July 2011 13:29, Chris Gilham <chrisgilham@hotmail.com> wrote: > > > Hello Listers > > I have just discovered an ancestor whose baptism entry is shown as > 'Private' - one other entry on the other side of the book is also Private; > and there is another previous entry, which is a few pages back which is > shown as Private, followed by brackets which appear to contain the words 'in > danger'. My ancestor was George Hogg baptised 13th August 1859 in St > Leornard's, Shoreditch. If anyone can shed any light on this I would > appreciate it. > > Many thanks. > > Regards, > > Chris > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > This mailing list works in parallel with the London surname interest list > on the web at http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~hughw/london.html . Check for > matching interests and add your own ! > > Any problems, please contact the List Admin: LONDON-admin@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LONDON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message >

Chris, Private baptisms were supposed to be done only when a child was in imminent danger of death. Then a priest would come to the house to baptise. Later, if the child survived the baptism would be 'completed' by reception into the congregation at church. That said, sometimes a family with money and influence would prefer to have its children baptised at home, rather than take them to mix with the hoi polloi in church. You will know which category your ancestor's family probably came into. :-)) HTH Anne On 16 Jul 2011, at 13:29, Chris Gilham wrote: > > > Hello Listers > > I have just discovered an ancestor whose baptism entry is shown as 'Private' - one other entry on the other side of the book is also Private; and there is another previous entry, which is a few pages back which is shown as Private, followed by brackets which appear to contain the words 'in danger'. My ancestor was George Hogg baptised 13th August 1859 in St Leornard's, Shoreditch. If anyone can shed any light on this I would appreciate it. > > Many thanks. > > Regards, > > Chris >

On 2011/07/16 14:29, Chris Gilham wrote: > I have just discovered an ancestor whose baptism entry is shown as 'Private' > - one other entry on the other side of the book is also Private; and there is > another previous entry, which is a few pages back which is shown as Private, > followed by brackets which appear to contain the words 'in danger'. My > ancestor was George Hogg baptised 13th August 1859 in St Leornard's, > Shoreditch. If anyone can shed any light on this I would appreciate it. Child Mortality rates were high until the middle of the 20th century. Very often, children were baptised immediately after birth to ensure that they were named and 'known unto God'. If the child survived, the second part of a private baptism took place and is generally noted in the registers as 'received in church'. Sometimes this second part never happened. Either because the child died or the parents simply didn't bother. -- Regards, Mike Fry Johannesburg