[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] godparents and witnesses to baptisms

[Karl Krueger]

Kristen,
  You have heard from several experienced people with different opinions on the matter. The process of getting witnesses and godparents may have differed in separate regions. You would have judge yourself if there is any merit in studying witnesses and godparents. I can only speak for what I have seen with the records I have studied. If you see the same surnames showing up as those associated with the parents or wedding couple, then I would look into it more closely, but you need to be careful since you would need to know how many families of that name lived in that town to make better judgements. Death records often state the relationship (if any) of the witness to the deceased. If the witnesses or godparents have surnames you don't recognize then I would not put much effort into it.
   
  Even as late as 1940 in EWZ I find adults with the same surname from a particular town are almost always related as either a sibling or cousin (or parent/aunt,uncle).

gpvjem <gpvjem at sasktel.net> wrote:
  I agree entirely with Jerry's comments. 
Having done data input by family groupings for almost 22 years of Lodz Trinity parish records, nearly 16,000 births, marriages and death records, I find it is a very rare occasion that a witness at any of the events could even be suspected as being a relative of the principals. On very, very rare occasions a record may state "brother-in-law" or similar relationship as witness, usually a death record..
As a matter of fact after including the witnesses in the database for the first 5 or 6 years of the project (1828 to about 1835), I came to the conclusion that it was pointless and ceased doing so. Some births/baptisms had up to 10 or 11 witnesses recorded, admittedly the first two signatures appeared to be the "official" witnesses or godparents because invariably their ages were recorded and sometimes their occupations.

John Marsch

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Having looked at many different records because of extractions, I am not convinced there there is enough consistency among the practices to allow for generalized conclusions.

I have seen families who used relatives. They even used future relatives. e.g. You find that a single godmother, perhaps a sister, paired up with a single godfather and later you find them married to each other. Other families only used friends. 

The same applies to witnesses of the birth registration. Such witnesses were less important in the tradition of who looks after the child in case the parents die so I suspect it is more likely that they were people who simply had the time available to travel to the church or town office with the parents for the registration.

I think it is safe to make some guesses about relationships and to investigate them but don't relay such research as fact until you have proven same through the record books.


Jerry Frank



----- Original Message -----
From: Ohgrmtns at aol.com
Date: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 11:47 am
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] godparents and witnesses to baptisms

> I received some information that has lead me down a path of 
> reasoning. I am 
> hoping that it is correct. So, does anyone know if there was a 
> custom/tradition related to the choosing of godparents? Where 
> they family? Good family 
> friends?
> Did the same pertain to the witnesses of a baptism?
> 
> 
> 
> Kristen FEIFERT Clark
> 




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