We are so used to searching for our ancestors in Births, Death and Marriages and the Church equivalents of Baptism, Funerals/ Burials and Marriages that we tend to forget there are clues available for life between these milestones.
Sunday School Rolls are often overlooked and although their survival in Parish archival collections is not assured, those that have survived, can be used to establish the existence of an individual in a specific time and place. They can also be used to ask such questions as why was attendance irregular – did it match with illness in the family, the birth of a sibling, lack of transport or seasonal involvement in family occupations? This source may even enable a match with a Sunday School prize that has been inherited.
Examples of Sunday School Rolls from St Andrew, Hoon Hay
Churchwardens Books are the adult version of Sunday School Rolls and they too are erratic in their survival. Their purpose was rather like today’s expanded Parish Roll. Churchwardens were required to register adults in order for them to be communicant members of a parish. This enabled them to vote in elections for vestry and to become members of that official body. They could also vote for and become Churchwardens and representatives at the annual Diocesan Synods. Families can be traced through this source as children became eligible to be included and occasionally it is possible to recognise changes of address within a parish.
Confirmation Lists
They are a record of a person’s decision to take on the responsibilities that god parents made for them at their baptism. The age that this service, which involves the Bishop, takes place has varied over the years. If a person was attending a church school then it is likely that confirmation occurred with their peers and not perhaps where it was expected in their home location. Small numbers of people of a similar age in a location can delay the age of Confirmation, until there is a group large enough to take part in a course of preparation.
Finding a Confirmation record can lead to locating a missing Baptism in and around the same time as one was dependent on the other. This particularly true for adults were not baptised for many reasons as children.
Many children left school in Standard 7/Form 3/Year 9 to undertake further training or to take up work. With the increasing availability of Confirmation records on line[i] it is also possible to find siblings who seem to have disappeared, for many reasons in other locations.
The names recorded are: Charles Edward Hodgkinson, John Edward Bowley, Annie Templer, Ellen Frances Hibbert, Elizabeth Mahuke, Alice Watson, Charlotte Harrison.
This record also shows that they took their First Communion on Easter Day, 1877.
If you are searching for Sunday School Rolls and Churchwardens Book, contact the archivist archivesdiochch@anglicanlife.org.nz for information about their survival. If you are searching for Confirmation records, then they are continuous from 1890, but there are some parish records prior to that date. Those named in Bishop Harper’s register are available on line, as well as many others after 1890. https://putake.recollect.co.nz
The archives are open each 1st and 2nd Wednesdays of the month from 1.00pm-4.30pm but an appointment is necessary. See the Archives portion of the Diocesan website.