How baptisms are recorded in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney
Before applying for a copy of your baptism you need to know in which church and in which year it happened.
Baptisms are manually recorded in registers. Each parish creates its own baptism registers.
There is NO other record of baptisms in the Sydney Diocese, and there is no central database. For this reason, it is essential to know in which church or parish a baptism was performed.
Baptisms performed in branch churches may be recorded in the head church register or parish register.
A Baptism Register includes:
- Date of birth
- Date of baptism
- Christian names of person baptised
- Christian names of father and mother of person baptised
- Surname of family of person baptised
- Address of family of person baptised
- Occupation of father of person baptised
- Occasionally: Names of Sponsors (aka Godparents) of person baptised
- Signature of Minister who performed the baptism
Most babies are baptised within one to one & a half years of birth. However, some families like to have siblings or cousins baptised together, so in some cases the baptism might take place at a later age.
It is only possible to supply copies of baptism records to the person named in the record.