Why does the parish register show more baptisms than burials?
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I have seen similar patterns in other parishes where I've been researching my own ancestors. A number of factors were at play, and it is difficult to be specific for a particular parish, however, the most likely reasons for Eversholt appear to be:
- There was a huge migration of population from rural areas to urban areas over that period. A series of Enclosure Acts, passed by Parliament and the Agrarian Revolution meant that many people were effectively driven from rural parishes to urban centres.
- From 1682, the Toleration Act, allowed (Protestant) dissenters to worship in their own chapels and meeting houses, provided they had been licensed by Justices of the Peace. The effect of this was that many people were baptised by the Church of England, but buried by other denominations. These people wouldn't appear in the CofE parish registers. I noticed that there is a Methodist chapel at Wits End in Eversholt. There are, presumably, other non-conformist places of worship, with associated burial grounds, in the vicinity
It's also worth observing that during the Commonwealth period (1649 - 1660) the parish registers were actually the personal property of a parish official (named, confusingly, the Parish Register). The records were often poorly kept, and many were simply removed by the Parish Register when his term in office ended.
When I was at school, the "received wisdom" was that people in the past didn't move far from where they were born. It seems we were misinformed. My personal experience is that my ancestors don't seem to have stayed in one place for more than a couple of generations!
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