Great Grandfather’s Baptism-Charles Sloan

To find the Baptism Record of Charles Sloan we need to know where and when he was born.

On the 1901 Census Return he states he was born in Co. Antrim.

And we can work out when he was born if we know his age at any point in time– not as easy as you would think:

- on the Ireland Census of 31 March 1901 he states his age as 40

- on the England Census of 3 April 1881 his age is stated as 21

- on his marriage certificate of 6 August 1881 his age is stated as 22

Assuming one of these is accurate his date of birth ranges from 7 August 1858 to 31 March 1861.

Civil Registration of births in Ireland was only introduced in 1864 so for our Great Grandfather Charles there will only be the Church record of his baptism. But which church in county Antrim?

Fortunately the Ulster Historical Society has an online database of all pre 1900 catholic church records for Counties Antrim and Down. A search of this database for the birth of a Charles Sloan in county Antrim in the period 1855 to 1865 only turns up 1 record –

a Charles Sloan baptised in St. Patrick’s Church, Donegall Street, Belfast on 1 June 1856.

Initially this looks unpromising as there is a significant age discrepancy - if our great grand father was born in 1856 then he would have been aged 25 (not 22) on his wedding day and 44 (not 40) on the 1901 Census.

However various articles I have read say that a large measure of scepticism must be applied to reported ages on census returns and state records. They suggest searching a five year span around the reported date. It seems people had a tendency to underestimate their age.

A microfilmed copy of St Patrick’s Church Register is available at the Public Records Office for Northern Ireland and this is a transcription of the relevant entry -

Registry of Catholic Baptisms, Belfast

Date	Name	Name of Parents	Sponsors	Celebrant
June 1 [1856]	Charles Sloan	James [Sloan] and Sarah McCann	John Reid Ann Gorman	Geo Conway

A search of the same Register for later years turns up a sister and brother -

Registry of Catholic Baptisms, Belfast

Date	Name	Name of Parents	Sponsors	Celebrant
July 4 [1858]	Margaret Ann Sloan	James [Sloan] and Sarah McCann	Margaret McKay

Date	Name	Name of Parents	Sponsors	Celebrant
Dec 10 [1860]	John Sloan	James [Sloan] and Sarah McCann	Henry Laughlin? Eliza Phillips?

There are two pieces of information in these baptism records which convince me that this Charles Sloan is our great grand father despite the inconsistency of dates:

- the fathers name on the baptism record agrees with the fathers name on Charles Sloan’s Marriage Certificate.

- the baptism records show this Charles Sloan had a sister named Margaret Ann and if you look at the 1901 Census Return completed by our Great grandfather Charles Sloan you see that he named one of his daughters Margaret Ann.

A search of the St Patrick’s Register for earlier years only turns up one older brother named William baptised on the 14 January 1849 -

Registry of Catholic Baptisms, Belfast

Date	Name	Name of Parents	Sponsors	Celebrant
Jan 14 [1849]	Wm Sloan	James [Sloan] and Sarah McCann	Brom? Jm? Catt. Fitzsimmons	M McKenna

I searched the Baptism Register back to August 1841 but did not find any more children.

To summarize then, our Great Great Grandparents were called James Sloan and Sarah McCann. They had four children called William born 1849, Charles born 1856 (our great grandfather), Margaret Ann born 1858 and John born 1860.