Excellent points, Bruce!! Thanks for the reminder General rules are good, but beware of those exceptions!! Jack Ruple, Sr Researching: Jacob Roppel and wife Margaret Tschudy, Swiss immigrants 1767 to PA. Bruce Fosnocht <bfosnocht@charter.net> wrote : > Hi, > > I've always thought that it was the other way around, and the baptism > sponsors were chosen because they had the same name as the parents wanted to > > name their child. > > I think this could be discussed ad infinitum, just like the chicken and the > egg. > > I think if you find one set of parents using one of the established > patterns, then you could make use of that pattern as clues to go looking for > > grandparents' names, etc. I don't think it's ever a sure thing. > > But I'm all for finding original baptismal records. The sponsors' names > could provide clues about grandparents, etc. as above. They often provide > the name of a brother's wife, or provide the married name of a sister. They > certainly provide surnames of families who were closely associated with that > > set of parents, whether they were close friends, neighbors, or simply other > members of that church. That's useful, because friends, neighbors, and other > > church members often migrated together, providing clues that I refer to as > 'cluster genealogy'. Several times, I have lost track of one of my families, > > but was able to find some neighbors who moved to some other location, and > there was my family, moved along with them. > > Just a few thoughts from my own experience. > > Bruce Fosnocht > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <JYoung6180@aol.com> > To: <paberks@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 11:35 AM > Subject: Re: [PABERKS] Naming Children Pattern? > > > > Mine also. Almost always named for the baptismal sponsor of the same > sex. > > Another one that took me some time to figure out is naming the first > > daughter > > with a second wife after the deceased first wife--even if there was a > > child > > (still living) from the first marriage who also had been named for this > > > wife. > > > > Joan > > ---------------------- > > > > Not all families followed this naming pattern. In fact, almost all of > > my family named their children after the child's baptism sponsor. You > > might want to try to track down your family's baptisms and check out > > the sponsor names. > > > > > > > > > > **************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel > Guides. > > > > (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016) > > ==== PABERKS Mailing List ==== > > PABERKS@rootsweb.com > > > > To contact the List Administrator: > > Rick Berkheiser, PABERKS-admin@rootsweb.com > > > > To visit the Berks Message Board: > > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.northam.usa.states.pennsylvania.counties.berks > > > > To visit the Berks County, PA website: > > http://www.pa-roots.com/~berks/ > > Hosted by Nancy Freehafer > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > > PABERKS-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > ==== PABERKS Mailing List ==== > PABERKS@rootsweb.com > > To contact the List Administrator: > Rick Berkheiser, PABERKS-admin@rootsweb.com > > To visit the Berks Message Board: > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.northam.usa.states.pennsylvania.counties.berks > > To visit the Berks County, PA website: > http://www.pa-roots.com/~berks/ > Hosted by Nancy Freehafer > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PABERKS-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of > the message