Genealogy Chat

Could some kind person tell me how i go about finding Baptist records as i have not got a clue Thanks Tracy

On Family search then go into IGI search and put in details. Good Luck Irene

Hi Tracy The IGI on Family Search or through the Hugh Wallis site. If there's nothing listed for the dates you're interested in then it will be the records office for the area local to where you're researching. But even this can be a bit confusing. I was at our County Records Office the other day and was asking about Methodist baptisms. Our CRO has some baptisms for the area I am interested in but they seemed to be for C of E churches. I was told that the best place to go would be the Local Family History Center in Hull. So it's best to give them a ring first to see what they hold Jeanette x

Thanks for your replies both of you,i have searched the igi and got nothing, my family are from Derby so will have to go a hunting there Thanks again Tracy

Have you searched the Derby churches on IGI. Irene

Tracy and Jeanette You don't say what date you are looking for, but if it is pre-1837 most people were baptised in C of E, even thought they were Non-conformists, simply because it was very difficult to prove your entitlement to live in a Parish if you were not baptised C of E. And for a large chunk of history, it was ILLEGAL to be baptised other than C of E - Jews and Quakers being the only exception to this. Lots of people got round this by being baptised in both places. Those who stuck to their principles and were baptised say, Methodists, ran the risk of the contempt of the C of E clergy and you read such things as 'buried Mary Brown alias Smith' which meant Mary Brown's mother had married in a Methodist (etc) ceremony and therefore in the eyes of the C of E, had not really married at all, making Mary Brown a bastard. (Phew, does that make sense?) As it was illegal to practise a Non-conformist religion, or at best highly frowned upon, many of these chapels etc kept 'secret' records. Some of these have been surrendered to CRO, but many simply disappeared. Non-conformist registers are usually catalogued with the prefix RG4. If you can find them, they are often a mine of information, giving both parents names, sometimes the grandparents too, and the child's position in the family. Several I have seen give 'Family Groups' and one even writes the date of death against the baptisms. Hope this has helped and not confused. Old Crone

Very informative Marjory as usual. That could explain why I found one of the earlier children's baptisms at a C of E church then. Haven't found any of the baptisms after they moved to a different part of town. We're talking 1870's onwards. I'm just kind of guessing at Methodist as I do know quite a few of their descendants were Methodists. They could be Jedi for all I know! lol Jeanette x

Another problem with Baptist records is they only baptise adults and often don't keep written records of them - even to this day, sorry to be so negative! Barbara

Thank you all for your replies they are very imformative Tracy Im looking for them as i have an article in the Heanor Newspaper of my ggreat Grandfather of his death and it said he was a Prominent Baptist Preacher this was dated 1862,anyway thanks again for explaining