Kildysart Baptisms 1829-1866

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murf
Posts: 365
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:58 am
Location: Qld Australia

Kildysart Baptisms 1829-1866

Post by murf » Tue Feb 27, 2018 3:33 am

At first glance, transcription of the Kildysart Baptism Register(1829-1866) may appear to present a reasonably straightforward exercise, being as it is a fairly easy to read transcript. But appearances can be deceiving, for this exercise was anything but straightforward.
The microfilmed register is a transcript (compiled by Sr. M. Gertrude of the Cahercon Convent some time in the 1940's), of the original register which was reputed to be in a "rather dilapidated" state. The Gertrude Transcript consists of some 260 pages of baptism records preceded by a partial alphabetical index of child names. The microfilm also contains a fair amount of general historical information about Kildysart Parish.
Well the good sister probably did the best she could with a sorry lot, but the deeper we delve into the transcript we find many pages out of sequential order(by date), duplicate page numbers(there are three pages numbered 140), plus numerous pages or fragments with incomplete or missing dates.
In spite of all these shortcomings I felt that it was still worthwhile to transform the register into spreadsheet format so that researchers would be better equipped to work their way through the maze. Along the way I tried as best I could to reorganise the records into correct sequence(by date). In many cases pages or fragments of pages could not be allocated(with certainty) to a particular year. These records were placed into a separate batch.

The new transcript consists of two files:
1. Kildysart Baptisms 1829-1866 Part 1
Kildysart Baptisms 1829-1866 Part 1.xlsx
(413.62 KiB) Downloaded 731 times
These are the raw transcripts in chronological order(by month). Often the days within each month were not recorded, and do not necessarily follow in order. There are many gaps in the register and these are noted where they occur.
There is a separate worksheet labelled UNDATED which contains those pages and page fragments that could not be allocated to a particular year. In some cases the correct year could be identified(eg by comparison with the civil register or other analysis) and these were included in the main group. In another post I will show an example of this "other analysis."
The Gertrude Transcript also has two large gaps. The latter portion of the index(names "T" to "Z") is missing along with pages 1 to 6 of the transcript. In addition pages 204 to 208 which cover most of the year 1860 are also missing from the microfilm. After further enquiries to the Parish Office it appears that these two parts of the transcript are truly missing and presumably lost forever. There however is one saving grace. The surviving part of the index("A" to "S") contains references to the missing page numbers. So the names referencing these numbers have been listed in an additional worksheet labelled INDEX.

2. Kildysart Baptisms 1829-1866 Part 2
Kildysart Baptisms 1829-1866 Part 2.xlsx
(464.1 KiB) Downloaded 656 times
The first worksheet is a Family Index wherein the records have been ordered first by family name, then by father's first name then by mother's maiden name then by year. This sort process is enhanced by first eliminating abbreviations of the father's first name. For instance, the abbreviations Ml, Mch, Mic, Mich, Mick, Michl were all converted to Michael, and so on. This may sound very longwinded but it doesn't take that long with the Find and Replace facility.
The second worksheet contains notes that I made whilst wading through the Gertrude transcript, and they may assist any researcher trying to make sense of it all.
Finally there is a data map which portrays in graphical form the transcribed versus missing data.

murf
Posts: 365
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:58 am
Location: Qld Australia

Re: Kildysart Baptisms 1829-1866

Post by murf » Tue Feb 27, 2018 8:32 am

In some cases the correct year could be identified(eg by comparison with the civil register or other analysis) and these were included in the main group. In another post I will show an example of this "other analysis."
Following is an example of the above.
Pages 246 and 247 of the Gertrude Transcript show records which are headed August and September 1866. When I searched for these records in the civil births register I could find no matches so it was obvious that the year 1866 was wrong. So if 1866 is wrong what is the correct year??
To get a ballpark idea I decided to consult the Family Index to find baptisms of other children of the parents on these two pages. For example an entry near the bottom of page 246 shows "Honora of Sinon Melican & Joan Lillis" From the Family Index I found that Sinon & Joan had other children baptised in Apr 1839, Mar 1843, Sep 1844 and Sep 1845. These I plotted on the attached monthly chart.
Siblings246-7.png
Siblings246-7.png (15.89 KiB) Viewed 7292 times
This procedure was followed for all the parent couples on pages 246,7.
From the plotted chart it can be seen that the year 1841 provides a unique solution, that is, there is at least a 9 month gap either side of Aug-Sep 1841 where there is no clash with sibling baptisms.
Accordingly I allocated these two pages to the year 1841.
So why did Sr Gertrude label these 1866? My guess is that this was a back-to-back page in the old register that had fallen out and then put back randomly. Sr Gertrude had found it simply labelled Aug & Sep but no year. Finding it together with 1866 pages she assumed it was from that same year.
Ah well, I said it was a guess!!

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Kildysart Baptisms 1829-1866

Post by Sduddy » Tue Feb 27, 2018 9:39 am

Hi Murf

Congratulations, Well Done, and Wow!

Sheila

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