Transcriptions of the Parish Registers for St. John the Baptist church for the years 1900 to 1930 are now on the website under the Records tab. These are taken from the original Parish Registers held at Stafford Record Office and I have transcriptions up to the 1960s (with more to do) but I will not be putting them on the site – if you would like details on specific individuals or surnames please contact me and I will supply the information.
Not everyone was baptised at St. Johns of course but there are over 700 baptisms covering 1900 to 1930. Christian names have changed massively in the last twenty years or so but you can still see the relatively short popularity of some names and the disappearance of longer term favourites over this period. Edmund and Edwin for instance had been in use for centuries but in these records the last Edmund was baptised in 1921 (Edmund John Cole) and the last Edwin was in 1920 (Edwin John Critchlow). In 1925, Francis Roy King was baptised but Frank had already been in use as a baptismal name rather than a nickname for Francis and future baptisms were just as Frank. The more unusual biblical names still appeared – there was an Abednego Conway baptised in 1912.
1898 saw the first Doris (Northwood) in the village and the last one just under thirty years later – Doris Howells in 1927. Other names had their time in the sun in our village at least – Douglas, (1897 to 1950), Eric (1923 to 1947), Ethel (1895 to 1937), Evelyn (1901 to 1941) and so on.
Most people who had lived in the Parish were buried at St. John’s whichever their denomination. Stafford Crematorium didn’t open until 1964 and relatively few were buried at the Congregational Church. If you lived in the area and happened to die whilst visiting the village you would probably be buried in your local graveyard. This wasn’t an option though when Seth Richard Jackson Morecroft died in January 1927 – his burial entry gives his residence as Dundee, Oregon, USA.
Please let me know if you find errors and I will put them right. If you have any stories or information on the individuals I would be delighted to hear from you.