I'm hoping that someone can help me. The baptismal church records before 1800 are divided into 2 pages; each page has six columns. The columns are crossed by rows much like a spreadsheet. There are usually two entries in each cell. The first column contains a number, the second a date. The third column has two names in it. I believe that these are the two (usually) names of the baptized child. But there is often no surname. The fourth column is puzzling. There are usually two entries in each cell, but frequently one or both is a letter, rather than a name. There are usually no surnames in this column. The fifth column usually has several names and the sixth column is usually blank. So, Is the fourth column the name of the father, or mother if the child is illegitimate? Is the fifth column the names of the godparents? I have scans I can send off list if that would be helpful. thank you, Stephen Pegler check out my blog: _http://peglermusings.blogspot.com/ _ (http://peglermusings.blogspot.com/) **************New Low Prices on Dell Laptops – Starting at $399 (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220433304x1201394525/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubl eclick.net%2Fclk%3B213540718%3B35046385%3Be)

On Apr 2, 2009, at 3:39 PM, [email protected] wrote: > I'm hoping that someone can help me. The baptismal church records > before 1800 are divided into 2 pages; each page has six columns. > The columns are crossed by rows much like a spreadsheet. There are > usually two entries in each cell. The first column contains a > number, the second a date. The third column has two names in it. I > believe that these are the two (usually) names of the baptized > child. But there is often no surname. The fourth column is > puzzling. There are usually two entries in each cell, but > frequently one or both is a letter, rather than a name. There are > usually no surnames in this column. The fifth column usually has > several names and the sixth column is usually blank. So, Is the > fourth column the name of the father, or mother if the child is > illegitimate? Is the fifth column the names of the godparents? I > have scans I can send off list if that would be helpful. It would be helpful to upload a scan to the web (if you have web space), particularly if you also have the top of each column too where there may be some indication of what each column was for. The numeral is probably the number of this birth in that particular year (first, tenth, forty-third, etc.), the date either the birth or baptism date, the two names would be the child's names. Surnames should be somewhere. Perhaps it'll be more clear once we have a look. The fifth column sounds like either the parents' names or the godparents. Parents are named whether the child is legitimate or illegitimate, unless the father is unknown or the mother declines to give it. Regards, Debra MacLaughlan-Dumes http://sakionline.net/familypage