I have begun the work of adding Winterbourne Parish, Gloucestershire records into a searchable database. Eventually this will include baptisms, marriages and burials. At the moment I have ~4532 St. Michael’s Church baptismal records for 1820 to 1911 and ~1357 burials for 1820-1859 online. As time goes on I will add more baptisms and marriages and burials but it takes time.
Please read the information below but you can access the Winterbourne Baptisms & Burials databases via this link: http://www.stronski.org/Winterbourne If you wish to bookmark a page it should be this one as there may be additional links added in the future.
Some things to keep in mind: This database is meant as an aid to help you in your genealogical search. It is not meant as a definitive source! In effect my work is a transcription of a transcription of a transcription. You should always check anything you find here with another source. The original records for Winterbourne are now held at the Bristol Records Office. The transcriptions that I have used as the basis of this database were done by the excellent archivist Ray Bulmer and the Frenchay Village Museum and these are in turn transcriptions of a typewritten transcription of the original records.
The transcripts that I have used for this database are available at Winterbourne Family History Online Besides transcriptions of baptisms, etc. this site contains many more valuable historical resources related to the civil and ecclesisatical Parish of Winterbourne and also for Frenchay, Winterbourne Down, Hambrook, the neighbouring parish of Frampton Cotterell, etc. It is a must visit site for anyone with connections in the area.
Some abbreviations used in the database: ‘dau’ for daughter, ‘OM’ for Officiating Minister, ‘PinC’ for Priest in Charge, ‘Rec’ for Rector, ‘Cur’ for Curate, ‘bap’ for baptised, ‘bap P’ for baptised privately, ‘bur’ for buried.
An explanation of some things you may find in the database:
- Baptised Privately (bap P) normally means a baptism performed in the home. Usually this is done in cases where a child is ill enough that there is doubt that he or she will live. Sometimes there will be a note of the death added to the record or there will be a note that the child was “received into the church” at a later date. In either of those cases it is a fair indication of the fate of the child. However many of these entries say nothing either way.
- Illegitimate children may or may not have the word “illegitimate” in the record. An alternate term is “base born”, especially among older records. In some cases the illegitimacy is fairly subtly indicated by the words “Single Woman” in the Trade column. Sometimes there is not even that much and the only indication is the absence of a father’s name. Finding the father’s name in the baptismal record of an illegitimate child’s baptism is extremely rare.
- Ages or Dates of Birth are present fairly often. It was fairly common for a family to have several of their children baptised at the same time or to have a child baptised when they were a year or more old. In many of these cases and in “adult” baptisms an age is indicated. If no age is given then the child is probably under a year-old but there is surely no guarantee. An actual Date of Birth became common in the latter part of the 19th century but was by no means universal. A DoB is also present occasionally in earlier years.
