Family history website Ancestry has added a new collection of 1,583,654 Hampshire baptism records, dating from 1813-1921.
In December 2021, Ancestry and Hampshire County Council announced a partnership in which the company would digitise the county’s historic records.
Ancestry has previously added a collection of Hampshire wills and probate records.
The baptism records can now be searched online. Baptism records are an important resource for family history because children were normally baptised shortly after birth, so they help to prove when and where an ancestor was born, as well as showing the names of their parents and the profession of the father.
Among the records is the baptism of Wilbert Vere Awdry, who was baptised on 30 July 1911 in the parish of Ampfield. His parents’ names are given as Vere and Lucy Awdry and his father’s profession as ‘Vicar of this parish’. Wilbert Awdry also became an Anglican minister, but he is best known as the author of the Thomas the Tank Engine children’s book series.
Rosemary Collins is the features editor of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
