Names reversed in parish registers?

VirginiaB

I located a baptism record in which I think the names of father and infant are reversed. Has anyone else encountered anything like this?

I was searching for Hugh Bruton, son of James Bruton and Ann Cully, in Kinnegad RC parish, Co Westmeath. At about the right time, 22 December 1833, I found the baptism of James Bruton, son of Hugh and Ann Bruton (looks like Butin). No maiden name for the mother and sponsors have different last names.

There are four children of James Bruton and Ann Cully in the parish records, all including Ann's maiden name. All sponsors have different last names. There is quite a gap in the parish records where the pages are illegible. But I have never found an adult Hugh Bruton in the parish in this era who thus might be a father.

Is it possible or likely that father and child's names were reversed and this is the baptism of Hugh Bruton, not James? Have others found such a case? Hugh was my great-great grandfather so it's an important record to find.

KildareFan

Errors are always possible - I would like to know more about when entries were made, how long after the event, who got the information....

I've found one baptism which mentions the sponsors, not the parents.

As an aside, the transcriptions of the registers on Ancestry & findmypast are creative to say the least, misleading in many cases. One good thing is that Ancestry seems to have improved the images so they are more legible than NLI.

Alan259

I have found a baptism where the names of the mother and infant were reversed. I also have found two other baptisms where the wrong surname of the infant and father was recorded. In one case it was because the priest forgot to put the surname down when the baptism was first recorded and it looks like later somebody else came and put down a neighbour's surname thinking it was the right name and in the second case the priest put down a neighbour's surname as well. At least for births for 1864 and after you can look to the civil registration records for a second recording of the infant's birth.

VirginiaB

Thanks for these replies. I have found other errors and wish I'd kept a list so I could get a sense of how common they were. Not counting spelling of course.

This particular situation with Hugh Bruton is critical in confirming his parish and it makes all the difference whether he was the child or parent.

RGM

I actually found this in a civil record, the father and son's names were reversed. Took forever to finally figure out why my ancestor's civil birth record didn't seem to exist.

KildareFan

I have found errors in the indexes as well - a Laurence was recorded as Thomas on the index - Thomas being the father and Laurence the son. The copy of the register had the names the right way around.

VirginiaB

Yes, I have found errors in the transcriptions as well--Mary instead of Ann--but it is the errors in the actual record images I am most interested in--how often did they occur in people's experience?