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Same dates, different parishes

Hi

Joseph and Ezekiah Wardle were both cutlers in Sheffield. Your apprentice records show that their father was Isaac Wardle of Stoney Middleton. I found baptisms for them in Stoney Middleton, but there were also baptisms for them on the same dates in Shirland.

Looking at their siblings, I found that Isaac Wardle and his wife Sarah (nee Hallam) had in total 12 children baptised on various dates between 1748 and 1770 in Stoney Middleton, with 10 of them having corresponding baptisms on the very same dates in Shirland. For the other 2 there were very slight differences in the dates, which might have been down to the transcriber.

Shirland is about 7 hours walk from Stoney Middleton, maybe 4 hours away by horse and cart? Difficult roads in those days and some of the baptisms were in mid winter. Not impossible for them to take the babies from one church to the other on the same day, but quite a feat to do it 10 or 12 times.

Looking at the burials it gets stranger still, because I see Wardle and Hallam burials taking place on identical dates in both Stoney Middleton and a place called Scropton, which is about 36-46 miles away depending on the route.

As Stoney Middleton was in the parish of Hathersage, why would its baptism records also be recorded in Shirland, and burial ones in Scropton?

Heths

Re: Same dates, different parishes

Hi Heather,

I don't know that area to be honest but could one parish be a chapelry of the other?

e.g.In Sheffield All Saints Ecclesall was one of the chapelries of Sheffield Parish Church and events were entered in both registers.

Elaine

Re: Same dates, different parishes

Hi Elaine

I had a look on Genuki.

Scropton was in the rural deanery of Longford.

Shirland was a parish in its own right and included the hamlets of Higham, Hallfield Gate and Stonebroom.

Stoney Middleton was in the parish of Hathersage.


Heths

Re: Same dates, different parishes

Hi there,

Not much help was I..... LOL

Looking at a map a very rural area and I can't see a reason for the duplication.

Very strange.

Elaine.

Re: Same dates, different parishes

I wonder......

Where was Sarah Hallam from? Her husband was from Stony Middleton could she have been from Shirland? Is there a church there?

Elaine.

Re: Same dates, different parishes

Sarah Hallam was baptised in Stoney Middleton and that's where she married Isaac. So far the most likely baptism I found for Isaac was in Hartington, near Buxton.

Sarah's parents John Hallam and Mary Gregory had also married in Stoney Middleton. Mary Gregory was from Calver. I'm not sure where John Hallam was from, although there's a possible baptism in Baslow. There are burials for John and Mary in Stoney Middleton, but with ones in Scropton on the same days

Heths

Re: Same dates, different parishes

Another idea,

Could it be the Vicar was from Scropton? A stand in for the regular Vicar???? Back then I doubt if they would have the Vicar listed.

Elaine.

Re: Same dates, different parishes

The duplicate burial records for John and Mary Hallam were in 1763 and 1769, and the one for Isaac Wardle was in 1790. It would be a big coincidence if they'd needed a stand-in vicar from Scropton for all 3 of them, especially as Scropton is about 40 miles away. Why not get a vicar in from Eyam (less than 2 miles) or Hathersage ( 5 miles) or even Bakewell (6 miles) ?

I'm totally mystified by this! Our ancestors do like to make it complicated for us LOL

Heths

Re: Same dates, different parishes

My last suggestion I am afraid......

Have you contacted a Derbyshire Family History Society asking for help.

They would at least know the area.

Fingers crossed for you.

Elaine.

Re: Same dates, different parishes

Good idea Elaine. Or maybe the Derbyshire records office. I’ll give them both a whirl
Thanks for your help!

Heths

Re: Same dates, different parishes

I sent screen shots of the duplicate burial records to Derbyshire FHS. They checked the original images and confirmed there were no Wardle or Hallam burials in Scropton. The Stoney Middleton ones were correct though. They think that the records were possibly uploaded for Scropton by mistake and that someone had pointed out the error. They think that the records were then entered for Stoney Middleton, but that the incorrect Scropton records weren’t taken down.

When I came to make screen shots of the duplicate baptisms for them, I found that the Shirland records had already been removed, presumably somebody else had queried those.

Heths

Re: Same dates, different parishes

Good sleuthing there Heather.

Elaine.