Runciman Lineage 1b - Storage of Recurring Images & Texts

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: Runciman, Rynsyman, Runsiman

Storage for Images and Texts which have potential for multiple tagging to the 'Runciman Lineage 1b - William of Crail' associated categories, free space profiles & personal profiles.

Birth & Baptism Dates in Scottish Records

The date of birth is frequently not recorded in the church record of an infant baptism. It was common practice for the child's parents to have their child baptised as early as possible after birth, frequently within one or two days, or even on the same day. The preference was for a church baptism. There are many cases where the parents have brought their new-born baby to church through very foul weather even though the minister may have offered a home baptism and such a determination added to the high infant mortality rates.

However due to the incidence of breakaway Presbyterian churches, a number of baptisms in Scotland were not recorded in the 'Authorised Church' (Church of Scotland) until some years later or, on many occasions, not at all. Against the backdrop of religious persecution since the 1500s and 1600s many ministers and congregations did not wish their dissenting churches to keep their own written records of BMDs (although others did) as potential evidence to be used against them.

This resulted in two situations outside the norm: the baptism of a child could arise some years later as the parents (or their dissenting church) rejoined the authorised Church of Scotland. This could sometimes be evidenced as a family 'multiple' baptism where all the children were baptised at the same service & recorded in the OPR of that date. The second possibility is that although there is no evidence of a baptism at first sight it's possible that there is a record (lost or surviving) of the baptism in one of the 'minority' church records. This possibility can be investigated by studying the index of archived records in the National Register of Scotland to establish what exists and, if so, where it as archived. BMDs of the 1830s and 1840s are particularly affected as this era was leading to the 1843 creation of the 'Free Church' which broke away from the Church of Scotland to a significant extent. It's estimated some 40% of Church of Scotland ministers dissented.

Because of these numerous possibilities no assumption is made that the date of birth precedes the date of baptism by just a few days, although in more cases than not, it probably will.

Reference to Copy & Paste within WikiTree: Birth & Baptism Dates