BAPTISMS - ST PETERS: AIRDS; APPIN; CAMPBELLTOWN

 
 
There were 321 baptisms performed at St Peters Campbelltown during the decade, 
although 28 refer to children born before 1831, plus 10 performed after 1840 
for children born between the years 1831 and 1840, this amounts to 117 more than 
the previous decade. On average there were about three baptisms performed 
per month over the decade.
 
The information recorded for each baptism includes: 
 
 date of baptism 
 date of birth
 child's Christian name
 father's family name 
 father's Christian name 
 father's year & ship of arrival in the colony 
 father's status upon arrival in the colony 
 mother's maiden name
  mother's Christian name
 mother's year & ship of arrival in the colony
 mother's status upon arrival in the colony
 parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth
 parents' marital status at the time of the child's birth
 parents' year & country/church of marriage where applicable 
 child's place of birth
 father's quality or profession 
 officiating minister
 reference number
 
Father's year & ship of arrival in the colony, father's status upon arrival in the colony, 
mother's year & ship of arrival in the colony, mother's status upon arrival in the colony, 
parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth, parents' marital status 
at the time of the child's birth, parents' year & country/church of marriage 
where applicable are all value added details resulting from extensive personal 
research, information which makes this work so valuable for family historians.
 
In the church register the mother's maiden name is only recorded when the birth 
is illegitimate, but again through personal research the maiden name of many of the 
married women has been discovered as well.
 
In mid 1834 Rev Reddall ceased recording the fathers occupation and recorded the
civil status of the father and mother instead (which is a great boon to the genealogist,
but admittedly at the cost of fathers' occupations). Of course this practice so no
longer continued after REv Reddall's death.
 
The list is presented in chronological order by date of baptism then by reference
number. The records in the register are not always in strict chronological order 
but this has been corrected in this work.
 
The Rev.Thomas Reddall continued his chaplaincy from the previous decade 
until his death in November 1838. He was replaced in June 1839 by the Rev.Robert
Forrest for the rest of the decade (with Rev. Richard Taylor filling in bewteen). 
Other chaplains who officiated at occasional baptisms included the Reverends: 
Thomas Hassall, Thomas Kendall and John Troughton.
 
The very poor quality of mircofilming resulted in many of the right hand side pages
of the register not copying the day of the month of the baptism. As well a subtle
shift of nomenclature occured in 1839, whereas previously the place of birth was 
mostly recorded as 'Airds' whilst only occasionally as 'Campbeltown', the reverse
pertained with very few redorded as 'Airds'. Why this should be so is uncertain.
 
With regard to the fathers 87% have been identified.
 
Seventy nine were colonial born plus twenty two were childhood arrivals, 
combined making up 31% of the total; 140 were convicts or former convicts (42%), 
43 arrived free in the colony (13%) and five were in the military (1%).
 
With regard to the mothers 88% have been identified.
 
One hundred and sixty five were colonial born plus 32 were childhood arrivals,
combined making up 57% of the total; 47 were convicts or former convicts (14%), 
52 arrived free in the colony (16%) and there was one aboriginal mother.
 
Assuming listing the mother's surname indicates she was not married to 
the child's father, only twenty five (7%) of the births were illegitimate.
 
Baptisms relating to births prior to 1831 are indicated with a hash sign 
(#), duplicate baptisms are indicated with an asterix (*) and baptisms for 
children born at sea with a percent sign (%).
 
There were three baptisms in the State Archives Pioneer Series file which 
have no entry on this parish register. It is very likely that most of 
these result from typographical errors and relate to post 1840 baptisms.
These are identified with the percent sign (%). 
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry in the 
original source document. The numbering system continued from the previous 
decade at C107 and runs to C358 by the end of 1838 when the numbers were re-initialized 
to D001 and run to D065 by the end of the decade (Numbers C174, C175 & C176 were repeated).
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SPC" on Lists 1 & 2. To 
locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name would 
be made on Lists 1 or 2 from which the reference number would be retrieved, 
secondly using the appropriate number, the entry would be located.

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