IGI Searches and the likely hood the christening dates might be the birth date.

I was wandering if anybody knows what is the likely hood that the
christening dates provided in the IGI searches might actually be the
birth dates. When doing searches with Legacy, I select a person and
do the IGI search and most all the dates it finds are listed as
Christening dates.

Cheers
Keith Holzapfel

Ron...

Most unlikely

if it says date baptised then it would be after the birth

it might the next day (unlikely) - a week or so - a month or more - or
even years.

Some IGI records also show a birth date but that is not common

yogi...

I have been looking around the Internet since posting this message and
it is fairly clear that the christening date is just that.
It was mentioned at one site that the IGI was never intended to be a
genealogy tool but rather a church tool to keep church related events
such as christening and baptism's.

Another site made mention that even if the birth date and christening
date were provided on the form, the christening would be used as the
birth was not considered to be a religious event however as you
mentioned, other details may have been noted but I would need to see
the fiche or reel to find out what other information there was.

I looked at several sites and as usual each site either agrees with
the last or contradicts the last but it was most commonly said that
the christening date was just that.

Cheers and thanks.
Keith Holzapfel

Ken Gibb...

The answers given thus far are correct.
The Church Records were NOT interested in the Birth date.
Baptism or Christening was the Church DICTATE.

In some cases Bap. or Chris. were YEARS after actual birth.
Time/cost/ distance were important functions.

Farm1...

I have one person who was Christened at age 17 along with his 12 year
old sister.

So why not display the name of your "victim", so I / we may check (all
detail) and confirm.

Ken

Ken & Jill Gibb, gibb@westnet.com.au
Mordialloc,
Vic. Australia.