In message <007b01c4739f$14c537c0$6cf1a1cd@pcpowerhrhqxek>, Gordon Barlow <barlow@candw.ky> writes >Googling for details of the churching ("purification" - yes, really!) of women >after childbirth*** I came across a report that in 17th-Century England - or >maybe Britain - midwives had "quasi-clerical" authority to baptize newly born >babies if they seemed about to die. This did happen and was the reason why midwives had to be licensed by the Bishop. The idea was that the baby would be received into church later, if it survived. The infant could be 'named' as Creatura, a creature of god, failing a family name's being offered > Would such baptisms have been recorded in >the Parish Registers? if the vicar chose to do so. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society