Created by Julie Goucher – Feb 2020 Using Wordclouds.com
For researchers not use to researching in England and Wales it is worth pointing our some inconsistencies when researching and recording place names
Firstly, in England and Wales births, marriages and deaths were recorded from September 1837. They were recorded in quarters – March, June, September and December. (Births that took place in December could in fact miss the recording and appear in the March quarter of the previous year.)
The recordings, in their quarters were done in district orders. My maternal Grandfather for example was born 3rd March 1908. I have this information from his birth certificate. His baptism took place in Flexford, which was a Hamlet next to Wanborough Surrey, some four miles from Guildford, Surrey, England.
Meanwhile, he was baptised when he was two months old at Wanborough Church, Wanborough in Surrey.
Baptism Record, Wanborough, Surrey, England – George Butcher May 1908
His entry in the General Registrar Office of Births reads as this:
Name: George Butcher Registration Year: 1908 Registration Quarter: Apr-May-Jun Registration district: Guildford Parishes for this Registration District: View Ecclesiastical Parishes associated with this Registration District Inferred County: Surrey Volume: 2a Page: 111
The Ecclesiastical parishes include these parishes:
Albury, Guildford St Nicholas, Ripley, Merrow, Send, Godalming, East and West Horsley, Guildford Holy Trinity, Wisley, Pirbright, Compton, Woking, Wanborough, Stoke and Worplesdon.
(courtesy of Ancestry)
The only way to identify the actual event is to order the birth certificate and pay the fee of around £11. Alternatively, trawl through the parish records for the various parishes and hopefully finding the information. Of course, these days it is relatively easy to login to Ancestry, use the search filters as I have done here and locate the actual venue. Back in 1990, I did the search the hard way, working through the parishes.
In my database, the event is recorded twice:
- Baptism, St Bartholomew Church, Wanborough Surrey, England – 3rd May 1909
- Birth, Guildford Registration District, General Registrar Office, England & Wales June Quarter 1908, Volume 2a and page 111
This postcard is of St Bartholomew Church, Wanborough, Surrey, England circa 1910 From the personal collection of Julie Goucher.
It is very important to record the venue and list the County and Country because a number of places in the UK have the same name and going a step further, a great many places outside of the UK also have the same name. By using consistent recording of locations, it is much easier to retrace your steps should you or anyone else need to.
Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest 