Genealogy Chat

I read once in a family history magazine of a mother who died in childbirth and the child was baptised on their mothers coffin. Quite sad really.

Hi On 4th June 1740 my 5x gr grandmother Alice was buried on the same day that her last daughter Jemima was baptised. I have always looked on this as a mark of respect for the mother, to have her last child baptised before she was laid to rest. Maureen

My 2 x great grandmother was buried the same day as her daughter was baptized. Poor 2 x great grandad was later up in court for leaving his children, with a young minder, while he was trying to find work. So very sad.Later he married again, and had another four children.

Very common I think, particularly the further back you go. I often wonder if it was sheer practicality - while you are here anyway, we might as well baptise that baby. And, don't forget that as long as a baby remained unbaptised, it was very vulnerable to the attentions of the Devil, who had alrady taken the mother, and might take this chance of taking the baby as well. I have reason to be grateful for this practice. I had a man with eleven children, all well documented, and his wife was Ellen throughout. It was only when checking baptisms, that I discovered the fifth child being baptised the same day as his mother was buried. Dad went on to marry another Ellen, and the children are seamlessly 18 months apart. I would never have known any other way. OC

My great grandmother's baby sister was baptised the day that their mother died, after childbirth. Baby had been born 3 days previous to this...and survived. Gwyn

I have come across quite a few entries like this in parish registers, it always makes very sad reading. You often find the husband's remarriage soon after, a man needed someone to care for the children. Jennifer

Hi Dizzy I have a baby's baptism and the mother's commital into a mental institution on the same day 1880...that is very sad. I think it must have been post-natal depression, but they didn't know about that in those days Sylvia

It seems quite plausible. The mother dies in childbirth, but the baby survives. Maybe it was in the summer and they didn't want the body hanging about, so the baby was baptised and the mother was buried the day after the birth and death. Baptisms were quite often carried out on the day or within days of the birth, especially if the baby was sickly. Just a theory, but yes it could happen. :-) Chris

I have just found a possible burial date for an ancestor in 1732, the odd thing is that it is the same day as her last sons Baptism at the same church. Has anyone come accross this before? It seems a bit odd to me but maybe it was normal in 1732? dizzy