BAPTISMS - ST THOMAS PORT MACQUARIE

 
 
There were 192 baptisms performed at St Thomas Port Macquarie during the decade, 
although 6 refer to children born before 1831, plus 13 performed after 1840 
for children born between the years 1831 and 1840. On average there were about 
three baptisms performed per fortnight 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.
 
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.John Cross continued his chaplaincy from the previous decade until his 
retirement in 1844. 
 
With regard to the fathers 71% have been identified.
 
There were no colonial born and only one childhood arrival; 73 were convicts or 
former convicts (36%), 51 arrived free in the colony (25%) and 20 were in the 
military (10%).
 
With regard to the mothers only 63% have been identified.
 
Just none were colonial born plus 10 were childhood arrivals, combined making up 
9% of the total; 60 were convicts or former convicts (29%), 57 arrived free in the 
colony (28%) and there were two aboriginal mothers.
 
Assuming listing the mother's surname indicates she was not married to 
the child's father, thirty one (15%) of the births were illegitimate.
 
Notice the marked difference in the demographics of this parish. Port Macquarie
was a place of secondary punishment and this is reflected in the large percentages 
of convicts and the military and the virtual abscence of colonial born fathers and
very few colonial born mothers. The illegitimacy rate is also higher than in
other parishes.
 
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 eleven 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 0017 and ran to 0129 by the end of 1838 when the numbers were re-initialized 
to B001 and ran to B079 by the end of the decade.
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "STPM" 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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