The reason for this is that visiting clergy sometimes performed baptisms and marriages and took the record of the same back to their own parishes. As well, people may have visited or worked seasonally in other areas of Newfoundland and Labrador. If married there, for example, the record would have been recorded there and not in their home parish. Some place names have also changed through the years. Ask at the Reference Desk for the file, Renamed Communities.
Some volumes contain births for years much earlier than the time frame noted for the baptisms.
Often, in the very early years of some parishes, clergy only visited once every few months especially during the winter season when travel was often difficult. For this reason, children were sometimes 2-3 months old before they were baptized. There are also records of entire families being baptized at the same time when clergy would visit a particular area for the first time. The 124 registers are also available on 14 reels of microfilm. These are copies of the paper volumes and contain identical records.