Godparents

montgo

Hi,

I am trying to work out who were some of the sponsors at the baptisms of my ancestors and I have some questions.

What was the role of the godparent back in 19th Century?
Why would 60+year olds be sponsors?
Was it very unusual for grandparents to act as sponsors?
Was it more common for married women to use their maiden names?
Occasionally, only see 1 name recorded or what appears to be 2 male sponsors, was that usual?
I assume that older brothers/sisters were often sponsors?

Unfortunately, there were so many Johns, Williams & Thomas, it is mighty difficult to determine whether a sponsor was a brother/uncle/cousin.

Thanks,

shanew

montgo wrote: »

Hi,
.....
What was the role of the godparent back in 19th Century?
Why would 60+year olds be sponsors?
Was it very unusual for grandparents to act as sponsors?
...

the role of godparents was to step in a raise the children if something happened to the parents, so the same sort of age as the parents, or younger.

I would think a married women acting as godparent would be noted under her married, not maiden name.

The problem with tracing witnesses or godparents is that names are not always unique within extended families - so no often way to know to tell for example which 'Patrick' is being referred to. Someone with the same surname might even be a neighbour or work college and not a relation.

montgo

shanew wrote: »

the role of godparents was to step in a raise the children if something happened to the parents, so the same sort of age as the parents, or younger.

I would think a married women acting as godparent would be noted under her married, not maiden name.

The problem with tracing witnesses or godparents is that names are not always unique within extended families - so no often way to know to tell for example which 'Patrick' is being referred to. Someone with the same surname might even be a neighbour or work college and not a relation.

Yes, I would have thought sponsors should be youngish in order to take care of godchildren in the case of mishap to the parents. However, I have an A. Sherlock being godparent on a couple of occasions c1820. I was thinking that this is the maiden name of my ancestor as there are no other Sherlocks recorded in that area. However, she would have been born c1765 and could have been the grandmother of these children.

So you wouldn't think that this was her because of her age?

One of the married women who was a sponsor certainly used her maiden name - there were no other Alices in the family.

Thanks for your help.

Jellybaby1

shanew wrote: »

the role of godparents was to step in a raise the children if something happened to the parents, so the same sort of age as the parents, or younger.

As baptism is a religious ceremony, check what the godparents are agreeing to do, I believe they also promise to ensure the child stays within the religion of the parents if anything happens to them, so its not just bringing up the child, but bringing up the child within that church. Could be different in different religions though.

tanoralover

montgo wrote: »

Why would 60+year olds be sponsors?
Was it very unusual for grandparents to act as sponsors?
Was it more common for married women to use their maiden names?
Occasionally, only see 1 name recorded or what appears to be 2 male sponsors, was that usual?
I assume that older brothers/sisters were often sponsors?

In my family there are countless instances of grandparents and older siblings serving as godparents. I would say the majority of married women were recorded by their maiden name (my research is predominately in 19th century Kerry). I think having two godparents of the same sex would have been more rare.

My mother's (b. 1951) godmother was a cousin of her grandmothers who was in her mid-70s at the time. Fortunately she lived another 20 years. Having godparents so old doesn't seem very practical. Perhaps they were considered "closer to God".

montgo

tanoralover wrote: »

In my family there are countless instances of grandparents and older siblings serving as godparents. I would say the majority of married women were recorded by their maiden name (my research is predominately in 19th century Kerry). I think having two godparents of the same sex would have been more rare.

My mother's (b. 1951) godmother was a cousin of her grandmothers who was in her mid-70s at the time. Fortunately she lived another 20 years. Having godparents so old doesn't seem very practical. Perhaps they were considered "closer to God".

Many thanks, I was beginning to think that I had to reconsider who many of the sponsors were. My ancestors were in Tipperary & Limerick so maybe tradition was a bit different in Munster than other parts of the country.

I am wondering if married women used/retained more often their maiden names back then?? I am just surprised that my family had the maiden names of 2 women born c1770 yet didn't have the names of wives of subsequent generations.

bbam

Just on god parents and maybe this is something local to us here in Cavan..
Back in the 30's & 40's when home-births were common place and baby's were baptised very soon after birth.
It was common for a sister/aunt or neighbour to bring a baby in to be baptised, and it would happen throughout the week as people were afraid to wait long for fear of the baby dieing without being baptised..

Anyway to my point. It was common for local upstanding people to stand in at the baptism as god parents. I know one man, now in his early 90's who stood for about 20 children. He came from a well respected family and had a job in the town so he was close to the church.. People would call in and his boss would let him off for 30 minutes to stand for the child..

On side note I know a man who was brought in by a neighbour to be baptised, the neighbour didn't think much of the name and changed it to one she preferred.. The priest insisted that he had to keep the name. The neighbour wasn't asked to help with the next son who was brought in by an aunt and given the name that the elder brother should have gotten.. It was some cheek !

Jellybaby1

bbam wrote: »

.....On side note I know a man who was brought in by a neighbour to be baptised, the neighbour didn't think much of the name and changed it to one she preferred.

Never heard of that happening before! Great story but not for the family of course. The woman obviously lost the run of herself there!