Baptism dates _before_ birth dates?

oceanclub

I'm getting results where the baptism cert has a date before the birth cert. For example, one great-uncle has a birthdate of 10 Nov 1872, while his baptism is Oct 13!

spurious

I have a number of those. I suppose we have to remember we are talking in many cases of illiterate people with no need really in their lives to know exact dates. If the father got into town to register a birth he may well have said three weeks ago, or something similar, rather than always knowing the exact date. Home births in the main, too.

RGM

I've found this to be extremely common in my research, so much so that I'm now surprised when baptismal records and civil birth records match.

pinkypinky

Yes, this exactly. They were more concerned with purgatory than state regulations.

pedroeibar1

pinkypinky wrote: »

Yes, this exactly. They were more concerned with purgatory than state regulations.

I agree it was that and a bit more - it was also (predominantly?) a fear of the stigma that attached to the burial place of an unbaptised child. The unbaptised cannot be buried in consecrated ground and unbaptised infants were ‘disposed of’ by burial in ‘cillíns’, often old raths. The older I get the more I’m convinced every religion should have a violent reformation every hundred years or so when the ruling elite should be fired.

P Breathnach gave a good reason as to why the date difference occurs here

P. Breathnach

You need to invoke a sense of what the practicalities of life were like in the 19th century. Journeys of more than 3-4 miles could be quite a big deal, as most people of modest means walked.

For one quarter of my genetic makeup, it's highly probable that both dates are well out from the reality, because my grandmother was born on the Great Blasket Island. A child might be weeks, sometimes months, old before weather conditions were suitable for the journey across the Blasket sound and the long schlep to the church at Ballyferriter. And the sub-registration office was in a different place altogether, at Ventry.

pinkypinky

I totally agree about practicalities of transport/working on the land. Most of my ancestors were from Dublin, and nearly all managed to get to the register office within the 3 month time frame. Birth dates on certs and baptisms almost always match.

CassieManson

oceanclub wrote:

I'm getting results where the baptism cert has a date before the birth cert. For example, one great-uncle has a birthdate of 10 Nov 1872, while his baptism is Oct 13!

I am usually inclined to trust the baptism record as babies tended toget baptised within a few days of being born. However the civil registration could take place weeks or months later.

RGM

My family found out that the birthday my grandmother celebrated was different than the one on her civil birth record. The family thought she just got the date wrong at some point, but I now suspect she knew her actual birth date and the civil record is wrong. I've been meaning to contact her parish to see if I can get her baptismal record.