Genealogy Chat

I have found my g.grandmother and her siblings on IGI, but they were all christened on the same day, as adults. How usual is this and for what reasons might it have occurred?

Hi,

perhaps your g-grandmothers parents allowed their children to choose their own faith when they were old enough and that is why they were baptised as adults. I have seen this happen in my own family but in more recent times.

I believe that in the past you had to have been baptised to be able to marry in church.

Caz x

Hello christine
Quite a few of my relatives have been christened on the same day.In one case 3 children were born in Huddersfield but they got christened back in Horbury,on the same day ,a few years later.( Probably the mother didn't fancy Huddersfield. ) I have another case where my gt gt grandmother got christened aged over 40 in the late 1830's. This caused me a lot of confusion knowing she was born 1792 but didn't connect her to the person of her name christened in 1837. There was also the belief that if they didn't get christened that they would be left 'on top' when they died. Probably some 18th century spin doctor. I think most children were baptised in order to allow them to get married in church. In the case of non conformist the children were 'dedicated' as babies then chose to be baptised when they were adult.
I would say that it is very usual to have group christenings.-JLe

Thank you both. I think you're probably right - they were all girls and perhaps they were trying to ensure that nothng stood in the way of their marriages.

I have a family of seven in the tree - 6 of them were baptised on the same day ranging from ages 16 down to 4 months. I think in their case it was to save money!

Although I read an article recently in a FHS magazine about when a new vicar appeared in the area going round visiting his parishioners and chivvying them along to be baptised if they'd not been.

I noticed something like that happening in a set of baptism records I was looking at for Camberwell. New vicar and lots and lots of baptisms - some of whom were definitely not new borns!

Jill

Thank you for that Mrs Grumpy - that one wouldn't have occurred to me!

Sorry, I haven't been able to get back to the computer since yesterday so only just seen your reply.

Chris

If you are going back to the 1800s, the children were christened in a "job lot" because it was the only day the parents had off work. For the same reason lots of marriages took place on Christmas Day.

Maggie

And we think we have it hard! Thank you.

Children were baptised to enable them to get parish relief if the family fell on hard times.
Each parish were responsible for their own. People could be sent back to their own parish for help unless they were settled.