Just the essential text below from the transcript of a church register. So, there were some baptisms on May 31st but Ada is listed as having been baptished after death/ Did/does that actually happen? [Usually I'd suspect the clergy got his dates confused.] 1936 Baptisms May 31 HALL ... Jun 1 TAYLOR Ada Mary ... born 30 May 1936 privately baptised died May 31 1936.
I didn't think it was possible, certainly not in an Anglican church. Unless it suggests that she was privately baptised on the day of her birth, ie the 30th. Bit of a strange one.
Was Ada the first entry for baptisms on 1st June? I reckon that it was probably a late entry in the Parish Register - they had just not entered it the day before.
Yes she was and this is what I first thought had happened. The person making the entry was probably half asleep as they wrote all the other information at the same time!
As it was a private baptism, presumably off premise, the clergy may not have given the details to the clerk until after the first entry was written for June. Sort of like modern accounting, when someone wants to post an entry for a transaction that happened in a month that's already been closed.
Aha! May 31st 1936 was a Sunday - church services with baptisms or the baptisms in separate services in the afternoon. All get written up on the Monday morning by the Parish Clerk. He then dutifully writes 1st June on the next line, only to be told about Ada, all of which happened over the weekend. The private baptism could have taken place on the Sunday evening before the babe died, but the vicar was late in on the Monday (traditionally a vicar's day off ) so the date was entered before the entry was made. Well, It's a theory.....
In the Catholic Church, a babe could be baptized within 30 minutes after death as it was believed the soul took that amount of time to leave the body, if a priest wasn't available within that time, any Catholic could perform the baptism.
I recall being told, at school, 45 years or more ago that - in an emergency - anyone could baptise anyone else (infants were specified) and use any nearby water available, even that from a puddle. Odd what one remembers!
