'Child above or below arms?

[mek126]

Hi,

I was reading some of the old parish burial records for some of my ancestors and noted the terms 'Child above arms' and 'Child unnder arms' in some of the records. Are these terms to be taken literally, that a child was buried above or below a person or does it mean something else?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Moira in Canada

[Russell]

Hi Moira

Although I have located over 4,000 relatives in my/my wife's tree I have never seen this recorded and haven't a clue as to its meaning. I wondered if the entries you have are specific to a particular parish. There was no standard entry required and different Session Clerks, ministers, church officers sometimes had rather idiosyncratic ways of recording things. I have access to burial records for one church established in 1797 and the phrase was not ever used there.
Tell us where you have come across the records and perhaps one of the members will have an explanation for us (I would like to know the answer too )

Russell

[AnneM]

Could it mean that a child above arms was born but a child below arms was still unborn? Sad either way. What parish is it from?

Anne

[AnneM]

Ahh. See this has been asked before. No-one was very sure then either.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6778

Anne

[mek126]

Thanks Anne for the information.

Cheers,
Moira

[trish1]

Google for "child above arms" returns a number of sites selling old coins - e.g. Madonna & child above arms
Google for "child under arms" returns sites referring to "holding a child under the arms"

More supposition from me - could it relate to the age of the child - child above arms being an infant, child under arms being older?

Trish

[Currie]

“Records of Old Aberdeen” has some of these. A search of the OCR text suggests they are all between page 157 and 164. Most are referred to as bairns, however there’s a 13 year old “above arms” (top of page 163) http://www.archive.org/stream/recordsof ... 2/mode/2up

Most of the Under Arms appear to have cost 6/8 with maybe 20% costing ten times that. The above arms are all over the place but appear to have cost substantially more than the 6/8 rate.

Alan

[Currie]

In “An Historical Account and Delineation of Aberdeen”, published 1822, 5th line from the bottom of page 68, there’s reference to “town’s arms” in West Church Aberdeen. But it seems West Church wasn’t built until the 1750s.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=yKQ ... AJ&pg=PA68

Then there’s this item, described as St. Nicholas Kirk: City Arms and dated 1635. http://www.flickr.com/photos/71654172@N00/4725292069/

Maybe that’s the Arms referred to.

I suppose also that under and above can sometimes mean sideways.

Just guessing,
Alan

[SarahND]

Hi all,
Thought I would join in since I posted that question back in 2006. Sorry to say I never did get it clear, but somehow I don't feel like we have hit on the right answer yet. Have just sent a pm to one of our members who works at the Aberdeen Archives and hope she will be able to find out the answer...


Sarah

[mek126]

Thanks Sarah for looking into my question.

Moira in Canada