Not sure about the Roman Catholic church, but I believe in the Greek Catholic church, the religion of the godparent that is the same sex as the child being baptized must also be Greek Catholic, and the religion of the godparent of the opposite sex is not so important. Maybe only the important godparent was listed or transcribed? - Elaine > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: > Re: [HUNGARY-L] Question on use of Hungarian maiden names > From: > EEH2198@aol.com > Date: > Fri, 18 Nov 2005 13:58:35 EST > To: > HUNGARY-L@rootsweb.com > > > > I have a document that my mother got as a record of her baptism and > confirmation > in the R Catholic church in the early 1900's. It is a handwritten as though > it was hand written probably from an original book. Of course it is all in > Hungarian which > I cannot read but I did have someone translate if for me. There is no mention > of > a godfather. The name given shows the godmother as widow Mrs. Janos Kovacs > maiden name Erzsebet Tabai. Is there any reason there would have been no > godfather named? > > Evelyn

I don't think you can make a blanket statement about godparents that would apply to all communities. We sometimes see godparents who are a different religion than the child's parents, which would not make sense if godparenthood were strictly a religious issue. But this may have been acceptable in some areas, or some churches, and not in others. I believe in some communities godparents were chosen from among relatives, though this does not seem to be the most widespread practice. One also sees in the records places where there are names of many witnesses to a baptism. Do all of these people function as godparents? That doesn't seem very likely. Godparents, and especially godmothers, had very specific social duties to perform. When there is a list of witnesses rather than simply a married couple, they often seem to consist of especially highly respected persons and/or relatives. I have seen nobles listed as witnesses to the baptisms of non-nobles, and villages where the same persons appear many times. I have also noted instances where witnesses have traveled long distances to attend the ceremony. Finally, my best recollection is that in the case of illegitimate children, the witness or witnesses seem to be mostly women. The best you can do is look at what seems to be the typical practice in a given village. Janet -----Original Message----- From: rwhun.ee.4el41n3@0sg.net [mailto:rwhun.ee.4el41n3@0sg.net] Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 6:49 AM To: HUNGARY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [HUNGARY-L] Re: HUNGARY-D Digest V05 #287 account) Not sure about the Roman Catholic church, but I believe in the Greek Catholic church, the religion of the godparent that is the same sex as the child being baptized must also be Greek Catholic, and the religion of the godparent of the opposite sex is not so important. Maybe only the important godparent was listed or transcribed? - Elaine > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: > Re: [HUNGARY-L] Question on use of Hungarian maiden names > From: > EEH2198@aol.com > Date: > Fri, 18 Nov 2005 13:58:35 EST > To: > HUNGARY-L@rootsweb.com > > > > I have a document that my mother got as a record of her baptism and > confirmation > in the R Catholic church in the early 1900's. It is a handwritten as though > it was hand written probably from an original book. Of course it is all in > Hungarian which > I cannot read but I did have someone translate if for me. There is no mention > of > a godfather. The name given shows the godmother as widow Mrs. Janos Kovacs > maiden name Erzsebet Tabai. Is there any reason there would have been no > godfather named? > > Evelyn