When people were baptised

[1000xlch]

Hi all

Just had a sudden thought    What made people baptise their children on certain dates, eg a month later or Christmas Day etc or even as adults.  Also when they chose to get married.  Would love to computer som statistics on that rather like the rootschat variety.  Any suggestions or comments?

Cheers

John Rowley

[suttontrust]

Usually children were baptised a few days after birth, but where there wasn't a resident vicar or priest, or in nonconformist churches where a minister only came round occasionally, it might be weeks or months before the baptism.  (And Baptists didn't go in for infant baptism at all.) 

[dweaving]

Baptism's on Christmas day was popular cos it was usually free,I believe the same was for marriage, also if several children from the same set of parents were baptised on the same day it saved on christening tea's.
Derek

[Koromo]

One of mine was an Independent Minister whose 13 children were not baptised until 2-5 years after their births - some done in pairs on the same day.  Perhaps he was too busy officiating at everyone else's baptisms/marriages/deaths to get round to 'doing' his own children - or, more likely, he had to wait for a different minister come along to christen them.


K.

[Clare Fowler]

Hi there,

I find that to help me work out why certain members of my family registered events when they did, I try to look at exactly where they lived (old maps etc), what job they did and generally what the history was at the time.  Sometimes it helps, sometimes not!

I find that the people in my family who worked in rural areas (especially those who worked as shepherds) tended not to get the births registered right away - but then, they seem to have lived quite far from the parish church.

I also find that those who lived and worked in Glasgow, tended to get married around 30th/31st December, which was when most people had time off (a lot of Scottish workers got New Year as a holiday rather than Christmas until about 40 years ago, I think).

It seems to be a combination of the circumstances people lived in, society in general at the time, and then personal choice, in my family at any rate.

Cheers,
Clare

[Lendevon]

It depended very much on personal circumstances. When the child's father was a seaman the baptism was usually delayed until he came home.
But strange things did happen. During the 19th century my mother's ancestors didn't baptize the first child until the second one arrived and then they were baptized together. ( Buy one get one free! ) When a third child arrived all three of them were baptized, two of them for the second time! It all helps to confuse.