I have found a case (in Illinois) where the godparents were married but the wife was listed under her maiden name. I also have cases where engaged couples served as godparents. But in the old (1800-1850) German (Catholic) church records I have looked at, the list of sponsors was sometimes quite long (sometimes as many as 6 sponsors) and included individual men and married couples but never, as far as I could see, an individual woman. On Monday, September 15, 2003, at 09:45 PM, REW111@aol.com wrote: > I am researching a German ancestor, Michael Keitzer (or Keutzer) who > emigrated to America from Frischborn, Hesse in the 1830s. He settled > in a German > Catholic community in Seneca County, Ohio. While I was reviewing the > church > records from the 1830s to the 1870s, I noticed that the godparents or > baptismal > sponsors were usually not related to each other, or in many cases not > even to the > parents of the child. This differs from today's custom in the USA, > where > parents usually ask a married couple to represent their child at the > baptism. > > I am trying to discover if the choosing of unrelated sponsors is a > German > custom, or perhaps just a 19th century custom that has since changed > over time. > And what was the rationale used to choose sponsors back then? Any > thoughts > would be appreciated. > > Thanks, > > Bob Wallace > Columbus, Ohio USA > > > > > > > > ==== HESSE Mailing List ==== > Postal Codes, How to Pay for Research, German Language > Letters, Archive Addresses, German Telephone directory, > http://members.cox.net/hessen/table.htm