Also, true for Lutheran's ..... and many times it was the family who picked the saint. The tradition also carried over to 1 to 2 generations in Pennsylvania (1700s) where the German population was high and mass was still practiced in German. It's especially important when looking for records. For example my Johan Friederich Dietz (1749 on the Edinburgh) is mostly found in the record as Friederich Dietz (in his childrens baptism records he's identified as both Joh. Friedrich Dietz and as Friedrich Dietz). In the same family I have found a set of sons named Johan Peter, Johan Frederich, Johan Georg, (but also a Georg Frederich .... go figure). Joe (not Christine it's my wife's account) Dietz robert mcalear wrote: > My experience with Catholic parish registers and naming patterns has > been that the priest gave the child a baptismal name which often was the > name of the priest's favorite saint. It is not uncommon to find the same > baptismal name (i.e., saint's name) used for nearly every child in the > parish during the tenure of any given priest. This baptismal name is > what would appear as a "first" name. The "middle" name is the child's > actual name. The baptismal name was generally not used by the individual > with the possible exception of a legal document (deed, marriage, etc.) > > Bob, in northern Calif. > ============ > > ==== PFALZ Mailing List ==== > Going on vacation longer than 4 days? Go to > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/PFALZ.html > to unsubscribe