Genealogy Chat

Hi I was wondering if someone could tell me if a baptism record/ cert from 1939 would have the god parents names in it?

All I know is that the birth was in April 1938 and the baptism was possibly at St Bartholomew's church East Ham. The godparent of this person is very famous. I have searched for the baptism but not sure of actual date. St barholomews has baptism's inline from 1945. Before sending my friend to Essex records office to search, just wanted to be sure the record will show godparents.

Where have you searched ?

But 1938 baptisms may not be online

My siblings baptisms born from 1931 arent online

That's why a visit to Essex records office is needed but I just wanted cto make sure the baptism record would contain the names of godparents.

My friend doesn't want to upset the parent by disbelieving the claim of having a very famous godparent. So thought getting or seeing the baptism record would confirm it or not.

Was the godparent famous prior to the baptism?

If so, maybe the event was recorded in the local paper and you could find a mention in newspaper sites online.

I have viewed baptism records from many eras, but very few have included godparents in their parish records.

Perhaps records from 1938 have been destroyed.

St Bartholomews "was gutted by bombing in 1941 and a wooden hut was erected for worship within its shell, becoming known as 'St. Bartholomew-in-the-ruins', until it burned down in 1947. Services moved to the vestry then in 1948 to St John's Institute. The old church's south aisle was restored in 1949, followed by the rest of the church in 1953."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Bartholomew%27s_Church,_East_Ham

The records at Essex Archives show that they only have the Baptism records for St. Bartholomew's, East Ham from 1945 -1952

The parish baptism records they do have do not include godparents. They do have the date of birth in the margins but otherwise only the standard baptism data is available.

If you get a free account you can search the SEAX site (online) to see if they have any baptism certificates, which may have the godparents listed. There are a few parishes where certificates are available but I don't think East Ham, St Barts is one of them.

Thank you all.
I am surprised the godparents aren't recorded on the baptism cert so apart from confirming the actual date of the baptism, there is no point in visiting ERO.
I will have a look at the local newspapers after birth April 1938, the potential godmother was living in the area on 1939 register with occupation she was famous for but with her original surname before she changed it. Still worth a look at newspapers as there seems no other way of confirming it's true.

I have a baptism card for my own baptism and it doesn’t show any details other than my name and date of baptism and the priest name

Most parish record entries I have seen don’t show godparents names only the parents names