[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Naming of godparents

[Rose Ingram]

Jerry and Karl are correct.  From what I have seen, most of the time there
is no rhyme or reason that we can see for giving a child a particular name.

As Karl pointed out, there might be a hint of sibling relationship due to
names showing up repetitively.  In one of my family lines I confimed a
sibling relationship in a death record of man, the main witness (finally)
stating he was a brother.

Rose Ingram
======================

From: "Karl Krueger"
----snipped---
> For example, you might find that Gustav A and Heinrich B witness for the
daughter of Friedrich A, whose wife was Wilhelmine B. Then in another record
you might find that Friedrich A and Gottlieb C witness for the son of Gustav
A, while in another record Friedrich A and Samuel D witness for the son of
Heinrich B. Seeing certain names showing up repetitively in this type of
relationship might be an indication that Gustav and Friedrich were brothers
and Heinrich was the brother of Wilhelmine. Of course, many times witnesses
and godparents were simply good friends or neighbors of the parents. But by
studying an entire town, and looking at who all the residents of the town
were, you will be surprised how much you can figure out without having the
"definitive" records to prove that Gustav and Friedrich had the same
parents.
>

Jerry Frank  wrote:

It is my opinion that naming practices of any type, in any culture, are
inconsistent and unreliable for hard core research. They can be used as
clues for furthering our research but I don't think we should ever say, for
example, that an infant is related to a godparent just because the name is
the same. The relationship should be established through actual b/m/d
records.