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The database will provide
an index to more than 500,000 baptisms from over
forty Roman Catholic churches in central Liverpool and the
surrounding area for the years 1837 to 1900. It
will be is fully searchable both by the names of the person baptised and
also the names of the parents. For anyone looking for Roman Catholic
ancestors in the Liverpool area this will be a distinct improvement on
the
freebmd
and
lancashirebmd sites
which provide only the name of the child whose birth is being
registered. With so many children with the same name it can be extremely
difficult to locate the 'correct' birth certificate. For example, in
1862 there were seven children called Thomas Kelly, five called
Catherine Duffy, six called John Walsh and twelve called
Mary Murphy registered in the Liverpool area. As most people search
two years either side of the probable date of birth then these numbers
would have to multiplied by five. |
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the year boxes are required fields
so you can, if you wish, generate a
list of all baptisms for any
particular year or range of years.
However, there are 7,000 to 8,000
baptisms per year and it will take
some time for the page to load. You
can leave as few or as many of the
other boxes empty as you wish, so
several types of searches are
possible
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Enter Forename and Surname if
you simply wish to locate the
baptism of a person when you are
certain of their date of birth
or they have an uncommon name
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If, however, this produces a
list with several children who
have the same (or very similar
names) then you can eliminate
some of the 'matches' by
entering the Father's Forename -
which you may have obtained from
a marriage certificate.
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You can eliminate further
matches by entering the Mother's
Forename - you may have this
information from a census
return.
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If
you think there is a possibility
of illegitimacy in the family
then you can leave the father's
forename blank and just search
by the mother's forename. This
would also be useful if you
locate a family on the census
where the father is deceased so
you only know the mother's
forename.
Advice
on searching
If
you enter a name or a combination of
names that cannot be found then you
will simply be given a message
telling you there are no
matches. This will also be the case
if, for example, you enter a year
(number) in one of the 'name'
boxes or if you enter a name (text)
in the year box.
The only symbols
permitted is the ' in names such as O'Connor.
Thomas P. should be entered as Thomas or
Thomas P and a double barrelled name such as
Smith-Jones should be entered as Smith Jones.
As
yet it is not possible to search by
soundex but you can use as many
wildcard (%) symbols as you want in
the search term, for example
Ca%l%n
should find all variations on the
name
Callaghan
as well as several other unrelated
names.
You
can also search any box for names
beginning with a partial phrase.
ie searching in the surname box for
the letters McC
will find all names starting with these letters.
The forename boxes are slightly
different. You can use these to
search for a partial phrase that
occurs anywhere in the forename. ie
searching for Ann
will find all entries containing the phrase
Ann such as Annie,
Mary Ann,
Ann Jane,
Ann J or even
Susannah.
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On the search results page you will be given the year of baptism
(and the year of birth as this may
be many years earlier in the case of
converts) a reference number which
you will need to quote if you wish
to purchase further details from
this site, the name of church in
which the baptism took place along
with the volume and page number for
use in Liverpool Record Office, the forename and surname of the
child, the father's forename (plus
father's surname if this is
different to the child's or if there
is any ambiguity in the original
entry about the correct surname),
the mother's forename and maiden
name. If
any of the columns are left blank in
the database this means this
information has not been included in
the original document.
If you locate a baptism
in the database
and you would like to obtain further
details the cost will be £3 (GBP)
per item or £10 (GBP) for four items.
Until the process is completed you
can have a search made in any
part of the baptism index that has
not yet been uploaded by
emailing all enquiries to
liverpoolrcindexes@yahoo.co.uk
The cost will be £10 (GBP) for a
five year search.
It is important to note that the details
from Roman Catholic baptism
registers are not identical to those
on a civil birth certificate. A
typical baptism entry will include
the date of birth and of the
baptism, the name of the father and
mother (including the mother's
maiden name) and the names of the
godparent(s). Only a minority of
entries give an address and still
fewer give the occupation of the
father. After 1908 it became
necessary for anyone marrying in a
Roman Catholic Church to provide
details of their baptism. As a
consequence some of the baptism
entries have a supplementary note
saying where the person was later
married. Although most of the
baptisms will be of babies up to 5%
will be conversions.
A transcription of a standard Roman Catholic
baptism entry can be seen
here.
This is the amount of information most
people will receive.
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