Births and Baptisms
Stroll through any Victorian graveyard, or those of an earlier time and you will come across the resting place of hundreds of children under the age of five. Some died in childbirth others from poor sanitation, hunger and disease. Many Children were born into our world and were cast aside unwanted. Records of babies being found up chimneys, in gardens, hedgerows, canals, etc, etc were common place in the early eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Because of the immortality rate for children, it was always deemed wise in these unforgiving times to get the child christened as early in their lives as possible. Many children were christened at home if the mother was ill and the expectancy of the child was in doubt.
Registration in 1837 made it compulsory to register all births, but many parents especially single mothers flouted the law and another Act in 1874 followed by another in 1878 put the full weight of the against anyone failing to register a birth. This contempt for the law meant that many births between 1837 and 1878 went unregistered.
There were no actual Birth Registers but Baptism’s were commonplace in all counties covering all religions, therefore Parish Registers are the best place for baptism and in some cases birth dates are mentioned as well. Another good birth source for genealogists are School Admission Registers.
Baptism Registers held by the individual Churches can be viewed in the Churches and Chapels section, also those records transcribed by E.G.G.R.A.