1813 to 1880 Baptism Project King's Lynn St Margaret |
Baptisms 1813 to 1880
The parish of St Margaret, King's Lynn lies in western
Norfolk and is the major parish of the port at the mouth of the river
Great Ouse. King's Lynn lies roughly 44 miles west of the city of Norwich,
sitting on the A47 road to the Midlands, and is the major population centre
for the region. As well as being a major port it also functioned as the
main market for the area. King's Lynn has ancient origins, its name is
disputed as representing either the ancient British word "llyn"
meaning a lake or the Saxon term "lun" meaning a tenure or farm.
Regardless of the name's origins it was certainly a town in pre-Conquest
times and acquired its Regis subtitle following the dissolution of the
monasteries by Henry VIII, he assuming the episcopal authority for the
town. At the time of this transcript King's Lynn was market, fishing port
and a trading port, importing and exporting to the near continent in particular.
Whilst the fishing (and especially the whaling) activities have largely
disappeared King's Lynn remains a port and market as well as having its
own industries. St Margaret was the ancient parish of the town, there
being chapelries at St Nicholas & St Edmund as well as separate parishes
of South & West Lynn. The original town was packed into a relatively
small area close to the river, today King's Lynn has expanded greatly
swallowing up the above parishes as well as Gaywood, the Wootton and West
Winch. |
|
The period of this transcript is covered by
9 separate registers:- 1813 - 1819 by a standard 2400 entry register filmed on Microfilm MFRO384. 1819 - 1825 by a standard 2400 entry register filmed on Microfilm MFRO224. 1825 - 1832 by a standard 3200 entry register, augmented by a few pages and filmed on MFRO224. 1832 - 1837 by a standard 2400 entry register filmed on Microfilm MFRO224. 1837 - 1839 by a standard 800 entry register filmed on Microfilm MFRO225. 1839 - 1844 by a standard 1600 entry register filmed on Microfilm MFRO225. It should be noted that a parallel register was in place and entries listed in that register but not included in the main register have been included. It should also be noted that many entries in this register are duplicates of events recorded in the newly reopened St Nicholas registers. 1845 - 1867 by a standard 1600 entry register filmed on Microfilm MFRO385. Once St Nicholas reopened the volume at St Margaret drops significantly. 1867 - 1904 by a standard 2400 entry register filmed on Microfilm MFRO385. All of the above were used to prepare this transcript - see also commentary below. The quality of these registers and the films was generally poor to abysmal making for trying reading at best and almost completely illegible at worst. There will be errors within this transcript and many of them. All of these films were from early reproductions with faint and wishy-washy images lacking the clarity of recent digital films, even on-line equivalents at both Familysearch and the commercial providers were of a poor quality. In addition the clerical standards were equally poor. There were notable faults throughout worthy of comment:- 1) Birth dates. Numerous examples were noted of incorrect birth dates, including examples where the given birth date was later than the baptism date, where the same child was recorded on 2 occasions with differing details. A common fault was that the birth date was written across the preprinted numbering of the entry making for tricky read. When coupled with the poor formation of numbers by the clerks this data must be considered to be highly suspect. 2) Planning of the use of available space. Like the classic "Plan Ahead" poster the clerks frequently were forced to squeeze second given names into a tiny area, where this was standard given name that is not a problem but where it is a surname used as given name interpretation of the scruffy hand on a faint image was very much guesswork. To summarise this was a hard transcript to prepare and the quality of media and clerical standards imply many misreads will have occurred, to minimise error the BTs were consulted for significant periods and facilities such as FreeBmd were used for some tricky entries after 1837. Despite these precautions there will be many errors in this piece and users are advised to treat it with some caution. |
Back 1813
1814 1815 1816
1817 1818
1819 1820
1821 1822
1823 1824
1825 1826
1827 1828
1829 1830
1831 1832
1833 1834
1835 1836
1837 1838
1839 1840
1841 1842
1843 1844
1845 1846
1847 1848
1849 1850
1851 1852
1853 1854
1855 1856
1857 1858
1859 1860
1861 1862
1863 1864
1865 1866
1867 1868
1869 1870
1871 1872
1873 1874
1875 1876
1877 1878
1879 1880
Back 1813
1814 1815 1816
1817 1818
1819 1820
1821 1822
1823 1824
1825 1826
1827 1828
1829 1830
1831 1832
1833 1834
1835 1836
1837 1838
1839 1840
1841 1842
1843 1844
1845 1846
1847 1848
1849 1850
1851 1852
1853 1854
1855 1856
1857 1858
1859 1860
1861 1862
1863 1864
1865 1866
1867 1868
1869 1870
1871 1872
1873 1874
1875 1876
1877 1878
1879 1880
Corrections to Tinstaafl Transcripts