Can anyone explain please?

[Findem]

Found this baptism on Free Reg: Benjamin son of E* Monk baptised 7 Feb 1694 at St Mary the Virgin High Easter Essex.

Can anyone tell me what that E* signifies please.

I'm guessing that the person who did the transcript couldn't decipher the father's first name but thought the first letter might be, or is, an E.

I did search the site looking for an explanation of an asterisk but found nothing.

I'm hoping that the explanation is that the first name is difficult to decipher, there is a family at High Easter, also on Free Reg, of a John and Hannah (sometimes Anne) Monk with five children baptised 1693 to 1707. One of their children is Elizabeth 1700 whom I suspect married my ancestor John Hart, John and Elizabeth Hart named two of their children Benjamin and Hannah. That leads me to think that perhaps if the E* is a difficult to decipher name, it might well turn out to be John.

It doesn't help matters that until 1704 the High Easter baptism register didn't name the mother.

Any contribution gratefully received.

 

[Flora]

Hello Findem,
Is this was you're looking for; found this explanation for transcribers in FreeReg

* (Asterisk) Several adjacent uncertain characters. A single * is used when there are 1 or more adjacent uncertain characters. It is not used immediately before or after a _ or another *.

Note: Using a single * is preferable to spending a long time trying to decide the min and max values to use in the _{min,max} format, which is more precise.


reason for edit: extra info added

 

[Findem]

Thanks for that Flora that seems to be the explanation I was looking/hoping for, I just couldn't find it on Free Reg.

The explanation of the asterisk appears to offer some chance of his father's first name being John, if some of the letters in his father's first name are unclear there's a possibility the first letter could be other than E. Benjamin is not that important to me other than if he is a son of John and Hannah Monk it explains why most likely the name Benjamin starts being used by my Hart line.

Plus of course the only other Monk children around that time in High Easter all belong to John and Hannah, I do also like to have my families complete. No doubt a check of the image of his baptism entry and once the father's name is deciphered will solve the mystery.

I will give serious consideration to contacting the Essex Records Office Archivist and get an expert's opinion.