Having noticed the thread on baptism, that's what I would wish for too. My ancestors on one side are English and they have baptism, not birth dates, although a few do have birth dates also. My American dictionary does make a distinction between christening and baptism - christening is the naming but baptism can apparently be done at any time and it admits the person to the Christian community. In England the baptism (which perhaps in England means the same thing as christening) was supposed to be done the first Sunday after the birth, I believe, but I do have ancestors who weren't baptized until age seven or so. The churches kept BAPTISM records, not BIRTH records and I have struggled for a long time with where to put these baptismal dates. My latest solution has been to just enter the baptism date where it says birth date even though I know it is wrong. I don't feel comfortable doing this and I wish they would give us a choice of baptism or birth. Lois _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com

Why not just use the Baptism fact, and for the Birth Date ... put "before (date of baptism)"? Bob Stimmel, who fears we are headed for another bout of baptism versus christening discussion ..... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lois Blackburn" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 6:32 PM Subject: Re: [FO] Rootsmate - a wish <snip> > My latest solution has been to just enter the baptism date where it says > birth date even though I know it is wrong. I don't feel comfortable doing > this and I wish they would give us a choice of baptism or birth. > > Lois

Folks, With the current features in FOW, you have missed the obvious solution. FOW has a BEFORE date. Birth is before the Christening or Baptism, or any other event. Just add the Birth fact using a BEF date. Example: Known info Christening 4/25/1825 Baptism 6/7/1835 Just add Birth Bef 4/25/1825. It is the same way for Death and Burial, but using the AFTER date option. Dick ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lois Blackburn" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 7:32 PM Subject: Re: [FO] Rootsmate - a wish > Having noticed the thread on baptism, that's what I would wish for too. My > ancestors on one side are English and they have baptism, not birth dates, > although a few do have birth dates also. > > My American dictionary does make a distinction between christening and > baptism - christening is the naming but baptism can apparently be done at > any time and it admits the person to the Christian community. In England > the baptism (which perhaps in England means the same thing as christening) > was supposed to be done the first Sunday after the birth, I believe, but I > do have ancestors who weren't baptized until age seven or so. The churches > kept BAPTISM records, not BIRTH records and I have struggled for a long time > with where to put these baptismal dates. > > My latest solution has been to just enter the baptism date where it says > birth date even though I know it is wrong. I don't feel comfortable doing > this and I wish they would give us a choice of baptism or birth. > > Lois > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com > > > ==== FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS Mailing List ==== > My very basic Windows beginners help: http://freepages.computers.rootsweb.com/~adelr/index.htm > basic HTML: http://freepages.computers.rootsweb.com/~pasher/