18 January 2014

A Baptism Provides Confirmation

As a followup to my post "An 1893 Baptism....Brings Two Questions," I'm posting the baptismal entry for my great-grandmother Trientje Marie (Janssen) Ufkes.

Great-grandma was baptized at the same church as her future husband: Immanuel Lutheran Church in Hancock County, Illinois' Harmony Township.

This time there were no surprises from the entry which comes from pages 34 and 35 of the church record and was obtained digitally on Archives.com.

The entry indicates that Trientje Maria, daughter of Jans Janssen and Friedericka (geb. Sartorius) was born in Bear Cr[eek] T[ownship] on 17 April 1895 at 3 in the morning. She was baptized on 28 April 1895 by pastor B[ernard] Geissler and had Tj[ark] Janssen and his wife [Meta Flick] as her sponsors.



I didn't know who great-grandma's sponsors were, but the names were no surprise to me. Tjark Janssen was her father's brother who also lived in the area.

The only thing I "learned" was that great-grandma was born at 3 in the morning.

Actually I was glad to obtain this record. Sometimes it's good to find something "new."

I was unable to find great-grandma's birth record in the birth records of Hancock County, Illinois Clerk and Recorder despite several attempts to locate the record. The birth date is consistent with more recent records on great-grandma, but it is nice to have a record contemporary to her birth that provides the same date "we always knew."

Of course, given that great-grandma's parents were members of a denomination that practiced infant baptism (Lutheran), the record of her baptism (which also includes her date of birth) would be a record contemporary with her date of birth. The baptismal record who have to be given more credence than other records. Fortunately in this case all the records agree.

Except that this is the only one that provides her time of birth.