Thanks to all who responded. What great stories! However it brought up another question. We know not all multiple baptisms were of twins, triplets, etc. It's hard to tell when the birthdates are not listed. What is particularly puzzling to me is when a couple has 2 children bpatized just several months apart. I doubt they were twins or they would have been baptized together, but then you can't rule it out. Pat suggested this "They were all single children but the parents for whatever reason did not get around to getting them baptized as infants. It could have been because they were waiting for a traveling preacher or maybe waiting until the sponsers could all be there." This is a crucial theory in my hunt for John Courtright. It seems that family groups would all show up abt the same time to have their children baptized. Now it's possible that all the women gave birth at the same time, but not likely . So it seems to me that folks would wait for certian family members to all be together & then they'd all go to the church together for the baptisms. Sometimes they followed the naming patterns but sometimes that went out the window, seems to have depended more on who was the sponsor. And then we have the numerous baptisms w/ no sponsors listed. Does this mean there were no sponsors or were they just not listed? If a family group showed up I suppose they could all sponsor each other & maybe the Minister didn't feel the need to list them all? As most of you know I'm trying to make a case for John Cortright & Sussana Kittle's son Johannes bap. Nov. 1, 1780 to be my John , who would have been 3-5 years old. Anyone have any thoughts on all this? Thanks, Cindy

I can't tell you what happened way back then but I can tell you about our family, The children being born in 1925, 1929 and 1932. Dad was of one church and Mom was of the Reformed Church and she was waiting for Dad to go to church with her for the baptisum and he would not go. Dad died in 1938 and that year we were all three baptised in the Reformmed Church. Van. ----- Original Message ----- From: Cindy Owens <cindyo@va.prestige.net> To: <NJSUSSEX-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2000 6:33 AM Subject: [NJSUSSEX-L] Multiple births or multiple baptism? > Thanks to all who responded. What great stories! However it brought up > another question. We know not all multiple baptisms were of twins, triplets, > etc. It's hard to tell when the birthdates are not listed. What is > particularly puzzling to me is when a couple has 2 children bpatized just > several months apart. I doubt they were twins or they would have been > baptized together, but then you can't rule it out. Pat suggested this "They > were all single children but > the parents for whatever reason did not get around to getting them baptized > as infants. It could have been because they were waiting for a traveling > preacher or maybe waiting until the sponsers could all be there." > > This is a crucial theory in my hunt for John Courtright. It seems that > family groups would all show up abt the same time to have their children > baptized. Now it's possible that all the women gave birth at the same time, > but not likely . So it seems to me that folks would wait for certian family > members to all be together & then they'd all go to the church together for > the baptisms. Sometimes they followed the naming patterns but sometimes > that went out the window, seems to have depended more on who was the > sponsor. And then we have the numerous baptisms w/ no sponsors listed. > Does this mean there were no sponsors or were they just not listed? If a > family group showed up I suppose they could all sponsor each other & maybe > the Minister didn't feel the need to list them all? As most of you know I'm > trying to make a case for John Cortright & Sussana Kittle's son Johannes > bap. Nov. 1, 1780 to be my John , who would have been 3-5 years old. Anyone > have any thoughts on all this? Thanks, Cindy >