Multiple entries

[douglas]

I have an entry in the Innerleithen OPR where the whole family is shown on the same page in 1805 but the births and baptism dates are spread over a period from 1796 to 1805. Does this imply that they had recently moved to the area or simply that something had prompted them to have the births recorded?

Douglas

[Currie]

Hello Douglas,

Possibly because the parish had abolished the fees to have a baptism registered, or perhaps the finances of the family improved to the extent that they were easily able to afford to have everyone registered at once.

The New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1834, records the following in the neighbouring parish of Eddlestone. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=V4 ... J&pg=PA147

“But there is reason to fear that several have been deterred from entering their children's names in the record, by the small registration fee of 6d. to the clerk. This fee has lately been abolished, and the good effects of it are already beginning to appear; in one instance a whole family having been registered at the same time, who, but for this trifling circumstance, in all probability, would never have been recorded.”

Hope that's it,
Alan

[douglas]

Thanks Alan for the explanation.

Douglas