Aguascalientes Baptisms

Aguascalientes: Baptisms

Baptisms

For centuries, baptism has been a fundamental staple of religion. Normally in the Catholic Church, babies were baptized a few days after being born. In baptizing the infant, a register was created after the event. This register is called baptismal record and is important for genealogy. It is important not only because of all the information given for each individual but also for their ancestors.

The purpose of this article is for the reader to have a broad knowledge when utilizing baptismal record effectively in the search for their ancestors. There are four fundamental questions that will be answered:

• What is a baptismal record
• How do I use the information to move forward with my genealogy
• Where are baptismal records found
• How can I view them

Example

This section contains examples to see what a baptismal record is, transcription of the document to see what it says, and parts of the document with descriptions to understand the wealth of information.

One has to take into account that not all baptismal records are the same. As seen in the examples, some records contain a greater amount of information than others. There were various reasons why a record contained more information than another. It can be for these and other reasons:

• The socioeconomic status of the child’s family.

For example, generally if you were poor not much information was written down; on the contrary if they had a lot of influence more and better genealogical information would be given.

• At the priests disposition.

Sometimes the priest would give preference to a family of lower means then a richer family.

Priests moved and the style of one could be drastically different from another.

Parts of a Record

The different parts of the document are listed here "may" be found in baptismal records, but not a certainty. Each document is different as seen in the examples.

• Name of the parish
• Location of the parish
• Date of the baptism
• Name of the clergy
• The baptism
• Name of the child
• Race
• Place of birth
• Date of birth
• Relationship
• Name of parents
• Are parents living or deceased
• Where they are from
• Name of grandparents
• Godparents
• Warning
• Certainty
• Signature(s)
• Commentaries in the margin
• Titles

How to use the information

The information you find in baptismal records can be used to find other ancestors. Information found may be helpful in locating additional information. Much of the data can be used in conjunction with other data to provide more abundant fruits. These fruits can be found in the marriage records, death, marriage information, wills, or various others.

The important thing is to learn to recognize that the information will help you find information and what not. Recognizing the information’s value and its genealogical relevance is going to facilitate the discovery of your family more easily. Some data in the list entitled, Parts of a Record, are not important when finding ancestors and are recorded, warning, and signatures. The rest are relevant.

Ways of using the information
It may be that these explanations do not cover all the ways that one can use the information to find their ancestors. So if anyone knows of other ways, please add them to the end of this section.