Quick tips: Chronological lists

Is a chronological list truly chronological?

For many of the sources we use we expect the order of events to be recorded in chronological order.  According to Dicitonary.com this means arranged in the order of time. 

In the church records before the year 1812, there is a label called “Chronological list”. And also in the church records with pre-printed forms, we expect them to be recorded in chronological order.

This is not necessarily true.

Many ministers had to travel long distances, often in a boat over rough seas, to reach some of the churches in the parish. He didn’t bring the large church book with him. When visiting the local parishes he resorted to taking notes on loose sheets of paper that he copied into the church book when he was back at the rectory (Thorvaldsen: 84).

In parishes with more than one minister the clerical actions these performed may have been recorded out of chronological order as they returned to the rectory at different times.

So, is this a big problem? The inconsistencies usually happen within a month or so. We know that many ministers wrote on every free space in their church records so, in these crowded records, the chronology can play tricks on us. We need to beware in order to get the right date. If we know when a clerical action should have taken place (e.g. checking information we got from someone else)  we need to be cautious of the possible inconsistencies.