5,850 baptisms at West Hartlepool St. James from April 1876 (where our last transcription ended) to the end of April 1923. Most of these baptisms give street addresses in West Hartlepool, but a few specify addresses in Stranton, Seaton Carew, Darlington, Middlesbrough, and Stockton. Most of these baptisms also list the child’s birth date.

This set provided many lessons in the puzzling discrepancies that can occur between the baptism register and the GRO birth index. In most of these cases, the baptism register is wrong and the GRO birth index is right, based on evidence from later censuses and other records for these families. Sometimes, however, the GRO birth index is wrong and the baptism register is right.  (Probably sometimes both documents are wrong, but those cases are harder to track down!)

For example, in this first one, the child’s surname is recorded in the baptism register as Murchie and the father as George Falconer Murchie, yet the family uses Falconer as their surname in the GRO birth index and several other records, so we dug a little deeper to find out what’s going on here:

• 15 Oct 1882 Isabella Mary Murchie [Falconer], of Reed St., born 23 Sep 1882, child of George Falconer Murchie [Falconer] (railway man) & Barbara
  [Note: The child is Isabella Mary Falconer in the GRO birth index, and her family uses the surname Falconer in the 1881-1901 censuses. George Falconer married Barbara Murchie in 1872 in Kilwinning, Ayr, Scotland, so perhaps the parents intended Murchie to be the child's middle name, or they accidentally gave the mother's maiden surname as the family's surname.]

In this one, the surname is clearly written as Moore, but it should be Moody:

• 8 Feb 1885 Phoebe Hannah Maud Moore [Moody], of Tower St., born 27 Dec 1884, child of George (joiner & builder) & Clara Moore [Moody]
  [Note: Surname is Moody in the GRO birth index, and George Moody a joiner is on Tower St in the 1881 and 1891 census.]

In this one, the surname is clearly written as Nesbit, but the child is registered as Waghorn and appears in later records Waghorn, so we again did a little research to find out why:

• 6 Jan 1904 Mary Elizabeth Nesbit [Waghorn], of 20 Exeter St., born 29 Nov 1903, child of Albert Nesbit [Waghorn] (property master) & Dorothy Ann Nesbit [Waghorn]
  [Note: This child was baptized under Dorothy Ann's maiden surname of Nesbit, but the GRO birth index shows Mary Elizabeth Waghorn's birth registered in the next quarter, and no Mary Elizabeth Nesbit. There is also a 1900 baptism to Albert & Dorothy Ann Waghorn, but they didn't actually marry until 1907. In the 1911 census, Albert & Dorothy Waghorne have a daughter named Mary E. born in West Hartlepool, aged 7.]

and in the 1900 baptism referenced above, the surname is recorded as Whehon in the baptism register – apparently the Waghorns had a lot of trouble with their name:

• 16 May 1900 Edwin Garth Whehon [Waghorn], of 24 Mosley St., born 30 Apr 1900, child of Albert Whehon [Waghorn] (property man at theatre) & Dorothy Ann Whehon [Waghorn]
  [Note: Waghorn in the GRO birth index and the 1901 census.]

In this one, the GRO birth index appears to be wrong, as the child appears as Frederick O. Eyres in the 1891 census:

• 9 Apr 1876 Frederick Ongley Eyres, of Dock St., born 5 Apr 1875, child of Marian Eyres (unmarried)
  [Note: Frederick William Eyres in the GRO birth index.]