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I am looking at an image via FindMyPast for the baptism of a William Milman on 14 Apr 1805 at Okehampton, Devon as the son of William and Ebbet.

enter image description here

I think that this is from the Parish Register of Okehampton.

When viewing the image it says at the top of the image viewer:

Devon Baptisms Image
View transcription

and at the bottom, which is repeated along the left margin of the image itself:

© Images courtesy of South West Heritage Trust and Parochial Church Council

When I click the View transcription button at the top I see:

Devon Baptisms Transcription

First name(s)   William
Last name   Milman
Birth year  -
Baptism year    1805
Baptism date    14 Apr 1805
Denomination    Anglican
Baptism place   Okehampton
Father's first name(s)  William
Mother's first name(s)  Ebbet
County  Devon
Archive South West Heritage Trust
Archive reference   3210A/PR/1/3
Record set  Devon Baptisms
Category    Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Subcategory Births & baptisms
Collections from    Great Britain

How can I be certain that this is an image from the Parish Register of Okehampton, and not from a Bishop's Transcript of that register, or something else?

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  • Having just posted this I notice PR in 3210A/PR/1/3 and I am guessing that may stand for Parish Register.
    – PolyGeo
    Apr 9, 2017 at 7:05

1 Answer 1

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Use the Archive Reference (3210A/PR/1/3) and search the South West Heritage Trust online catalogues.

You will discover that the document concerned is the Okehampton Parish Register (Baptisms and Burials) 1801-1812.

More generally, it's always worth looking for the archive and archive reference for an item found online, and then consulting the online catalogue to learn what you can about a source. Very often, providers such as Ancestry and Findmypast summarise the 'source of the source' and there may be more detail in the online catalogue. (Of course, you should always cite the online copy because that's what you consulted but any extra info might help you assess the reliability and completeness of the online records).

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