Baptism Lookup Request

Click on one of the links below to access the main areas of this site

I currently have access to the baptisms from June 5, 1801 to December 31, 1817. The period between 1801 and 1837 is not covered by the IGI or by civil registration records and so forms something of a 'black hole' in easily available information. This page facilitates your making a lookup request. It is organised into a number of different types of search as follows (click on the relevant link to take you directly to the right place on this page):

You can search for the surname(s) you are interested in using a Soundex matching method and, if possibilities are found, request a lookup for the details of the entry or entries.
You can look for all surnames that begin with a particular letter.
A valuable feature is also available called a 'middle name lookup', Often an individual's middle name(s) can provide a clue to their ancestry since frequently children are given middle names that are surnames of their mother or grandparents or other names important to the family. For all the baptism registers which have been fully transcribed I have created a list of middle names found in the registers (both for children being baptised and their parents) for which you can request a lookup.
You can see statistics I have gathered about the baptisms in Stoke Damerel for these years.

You may also want to read the special note about the activities in December 1812 further down this page.

If you find any errors please let me know at errors@stokedamerelopc.org

This facility is currently still in test mode and therefore may not behave as anticipated. Your feedback is welcome.

Search using Soundex matching

Instructions:

Enter the surname for which to search - do NOT use wildcard characters (e.g. *, ? etc.).
Click on the Search button
Any matching entries will appear in a separate window. This may take a little time to appear completely. Occasionally the results window may be hidden when it first appears, in which case you will need to bring it to the front manually.

Search by first letter(s) of surname

Click on the appropriate link below to see surnames beginning with the relevant letter. Any matching entries will appear in a separate window. Some of these pages are very large and so this may take a little time to appear completely. I have now split some initial letters into more than one range to alleviate this problem. Occasionally the results window may be hidden when it first appears, in which case you will need to bring it to the front manually.

A B-BD BE-BH BI-BQ BR BS-BZ

C-CK CL-CQ CR-CZ D E F

GA-GN GO-GZ H-HD HE-HN HO-HZ

I J K L M-MH MI-MZ N O

P-PD PE-PK PL-PZ Q R S-SH

SI-SP SQ-SZ T-TO TP-TZ U V

W-WH WI-WZ X Y Z Unreadable

Special note - December 1812

The last few pages of 1812 are a major challenge to read due to a new clerk who started work in October 1812 and who had incredibly bad handwriting. In addition, the sheer volume of baptisms (see the table and graph below) that took place before the new recording system went into effect in 1813 meant that the church was clearly struggling to keep up with the paperwork. There are obvious mistakes such as a section of the register (about 15 baptisms) that is repeated on different pages and surnames not being recorded at all in a few instances. Many people decided to get baptisms done that they had put off because of a (false) rumour that the cost would go up in 1813. (And, I suppose, the church was not about to discourage anyone from entering the fold, whatever the reason!!)

For this reason it is a very important section of the register genealogically speaking as many families that might otherwise not have appeared at all baptised all their children and sometimes the parents as well. There are many adult baptisms in this period so, if you are missing a relative from the late 1700s you might find them baptised in December 1812. Unfortunately, because of the readability problems I mentioned above, some of the names are apparently nonsensical and some baptisms will probably be lost to the world for eternity. If you are really stuck, don't rely on this lookup request facility but get to look at the actual registers for yourself. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) this will entail a trip to Plymouth but that's life for a genealogist I'm afraid.

This table shows the number of baptisms by day for this month.

Day of the month	Number of Baptisms
1	1
3	1
4	1
6	11
8	1
10	2
11	1
12	1
13	25
14	5
15	11
16	6
17	4
18	7
20	48
21	14
22	20
23	21
24	23
25	78 Christmas Day was always busy
26	11 the calm before the storm
27	0 closed to prepare for the rush?
28	180
29	159
30	136
31	309 visions of fire hoses full of holy water

Click on the image below to see a graph of this information:

Statistics

Baptisms by year and month:


Year	Total	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1801	372						36	60	65	56	47	58	50
1802	757	65	51	55	60	95	40	57	88	73	70	55	48
1803	745	70	44	57	52	82	58	71	63	62	77	55	54
1804	786	56	67	51	62	61	59	76	59	72	66	71	86
1805	850	78	58	70	74	69	78	67	51	72	73	73	87
1806	933	91	82	69	99	64	94	67	79	68	59	79	82
1807	1001	94	80	79	104	94	86	84	94	64	80	69	73
1808	1027	88	88	89	100	100	97	88	75	70	95	62	75
1809	1091	94	73	96	133	97	66	99	70	75	115	79	94
1810	1127	89	91	69	129	64	78	125	90	94	105	93	100
1811	1105	74	73	102	96	82	86	105	82	93	99	102	111
1812	2127	105	88	96	115	90	86	100	116	77	76	102	1076
1813	1316	123	109	108	95	103	106	100	135	96	121	107	113
1814	1306	125	107	131	121	134	86	108	104	104	137	70	79
1815	1355	126	108	83	127	118	115	143	111	110	109	84	121
1816	1176	88	98	119	106	77	109	82	114	87	94	100	102
1817	972	94	89	63	94	88	90	81	79	73	89	80	52

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