Years ago I was transcribing and translating a 1790 era baptismal entry from a Belgian church. The entry listed the parish of residence of the child’s baptismal sponsors–clearly not the same as that of the parents.
The child was baptized when a few days old. That was when it dawned on me. The sponsors had to live nearby. While it was possible they had travelled from a distance to help with the birth, the more likely scenario was that they lived within a distance where the news could have easily gotten to them within a few days.
Sure enough, when looking at a map, I was able to realize the name of the town the priest had messily scribbled in the church book. Of course, today a Google search might have been helpful–if enough of the letters were ones I could reasonably guess at. Seeing the name on the map made it click what the letters were.
One response
This has been happening to me as well while transcribing church records from my hometown in
Germany. Surrounding areas that I have never even heard of. Genealogy friends directed me to
some old maps online and yes these areas existed. Another problem is that these records are in
Latin. Once I start get used to the writing, I can translate most of it most of the time.