Post by Zenobia on May 13, 2007 14:10:22 GMT -5
Parish Registers are generally considered to be one of the best primary sources available for births, deaths and marriages in England.
However, due to the fact that they are written by clerks, and clerks are only human, errors do creep in.
A few examples:
The Lelant Parish register shows the christening of William Glasson on 8 Sept 1771 to John and Catherine Glasson.
Now, Catherine's name was really Christian, but this is a common problem, as both names use the nickname "Kitty" and so are frequently interchangeable in the records.
However, the problem gets bigger with the following entry:
A William Glasson, chr. 8 May 1784 to John and Christian.
At first glance, one would think that the first son William died young, and another was named for him. However, there is no death entry for a William Glasson in the interim, and William later appears on both early census records, and also has a death (with age) recorded at Lelant, and it all points to the year 1771.
No record can be found later for the 'second William' of 1784.
However, later records confirm that John Glasson had a daughter Elizabeth, who married Thomas Jelbart in 1803. Census records and her death record all indicate that she was born in 1784!
The only explanation here is that the tired clerk at the end of the day, when recording the day's christenings, listed poor Elizabeth as a son William!
Another case occurs for the Lelant Glasson family with the record of the chr. of John Glasson to John and Susanna Glasson in Dec 1800. This was 9 months after the marriage of John Glasson to Elizabeth Trewhella. John is later found in census records with his brother Josiah and also nieces Elizabeth and Emma Glasson residing with him, proving that he was a son of John and Elizabeth, not a John and Susanna. John Glasson Sr. had a sister named Susanna; perhaps she was one of the child's godparents and that is how the clerk mixed them up.
And now a really fun one that occurred at Gwithian:
On the 16 March 1633, two male children are christened:
Gregory son of Thomas Roberts
Nathaniell son of Gentle Sandry
Neither a Gregory Roberts or a Nathaniel Sandry show up in later records. The death records for this time period are a bit shaky, so either of both could have died young.
However, a Nathaniel ROBERTS does show up in later records. The 1679 will of Jane Stephens of Gwithian proves that Nathaniel Roberts was the son of Thomas Roberts.
So in this case, it would appear that the clerk placed each child with the wrong father!
Fortunately, in the three cases above, other records uncovered the errors in the parish register. Errors I believe were not common in the PRs, but they did occur, so always use caution and seek other records when available to flesh out your families...
However, due to the fact that they are written by clerks, and clerks are only human, errors do creep in.
A few examples:
The Lelant Parish register shows the christening of William Glasson on 8 Sept 1771 to John and Catherine Glasson.
Now, Catherine's name was really Christian, but this is a common problem, as both names use the nickname "Kitty" and so are frequently interchangeable in the records.
However, the problem gets bigger with the following entry:
A William Glasson, chr. 8 May 1784 to John and Christian.
At first glance, one would think that the first son William died young, and another was named for him. However, there is no death entry for a William Glasson in the interim, and William later appears on both early census records, and also has a death (with age) recorded at Lelant, and it all points to the year 1771.
No record can be found later for the 'second William' of 1784.
However, later records confirm that John Glasson had a daughter Elizabeth, who married Thomas Jelbart in 1803. Census records and her death record all indicate that she was born in 1784!
The only explanation here is that the tired clerk at the end of the day, when recording the day's christenings, listed poor Elizabeth as a son William!
Another case occurs for the Lelant Glasson family with the record of the chr. of John Glasson to John and Susanna Glasson in Dec 1800. This was 9 months after the marriage of John Glasson to Elizabeth Trewhella. John is later found in census records with his brother Josiah and also nieces Elizabeth and Emma Glasson residing with him, proving that he was a son of John and Elizabeth, not a John and Susanna. John Glasson Sr. had a sister named Susanna; perhaps she was one of the child's godparents and that is how the clerk mixed them up.
And now a really fun one that occurred at Gwithian:
On the 16 March 1633, two male children are christened:
Gregory son of Thomas Roberts
Nathaniell son of Gentle Sandry
Neither a Gregory Roberts or a Nathaniel Sandry show up in later records. The death records for this time period are a bit shaky, so either of both could have died young.
However, a Nathaniel ROBERTS does show up in later records. The 1679 will of Jane Stephens of Gwithian proves that Nathaniel Roberts was the son of Thomas Roberts.
So in this case, it would appear that the clerk placed each child with the wrong father!
Fortunately, in the three cases above, other records uncovered the errors in the parish register. Errors I believe were not common in the PRs, but they did occur, so always use caution and seek other records when available to flesh out your families...