When I mentioned to someone that my grandmother was baptized at the age of five into a church that practice infant baptism, their immediate response was that “the family had to wait for a pastor to marry them.” There was no convincing this person that their assumption was incorrect.
The church where Grandma was baptized had a regular pastor from the 1880s through the present day. Grandma was born in 1910.
While the area where Grandma lived in the 1910-1915 time frame was rural, it was not isolated and was fairly well settled. In fact there were more people living there then that there are today.
Make certain your assumptions are time and context appropriate. Waiting for a preacher of the “right denomination” might have been necessary in 1865 Nebraska. It was not the case in 1910 Illinois.
It never hurts to educate yourself and learn about your ancestor’s context.
It might not hurt to make assumptions, but it can sometimes give you genealogical headaches when you do so.
6 Responses
So why was she baptized so late?
In this case, I really don’t know why Grandma was baptized so late. In fact, she and her slightly older sister (by two years) and her younger brother (by a couple of years) were all baptized on the same day.
[…] Don’t Speculate–Educate! by Michael John Neill at Genealogy Tip of the Day – Michael advises us not to make assumptions about our ancestors’ lives, but to learn the context instead […]
Amen, Michael. What a mess we can make. Is it possible your ancestors weren’t active in that church until the child was five? Or perhaps they attended but didn’t become members? Becoming a member of many churches back then gave the church an authority over you that few would accept today. Many attended without joining. And many never attended. But all three children on the same day sounds like the harvest of a revival meeting — or the family just joining the church, having come from one that didn’t baptize children. Interesting account!
My apologies for the above. Michael. I thought I typed my name (Donna Baker), but see that it only says “D.” I wasn’t being anonymous, promise.
The “what if” game is always fun to play. And sometimes the ‘right’ answer suddenly pops up. For example, maybe the minister there when the kid[s] were infants was just not someone they liked well. So much so that they waited. ….. Or maybe one of the parents wasn’t big on baptism and the other one had to do some convincing. ….. Or maybe they wanted the kids to behave “well” for the occasion and they were not likely to do so if someone sloshed water on their heads. ….. Or maybe the church believed in baptism only after a certain age. ……Or maybe one of the parents wasn’t convinced that infant baptism was the way to go. ….. Or maybe there was a relative, a grandmother for example, who wanted to be there and so they waited until that was a possibility. ….. Or maybe—–
Even if you don’t find a “right!” answer, it’s lots of fun to play!