Were people in the 1700s generally born in the same town as they were christened?

Answer 1

Yes. In the days before public transportation the church in the village was THE church one would attend. Most people had to walk to church to have their babies christened. They weren't going to risk the health of a newborn by travelling past the nearest church to have the baby christened in another. It was also considered a mortal sin if a baby wasn't christened within a week a birth for Anglicans and 2 days for Catholics, so the baptismal records give a very small timeframe for the date of birth v date of christening.

Answer 2

I take exception to one poster who said the south was more intolerant to Catholics. I don't think the southern colonies were any more intolerant to Catholicism than the North. The Diocese of Savannah is one of the oldest in the South and they never had know nothing riots there. They never had them in Charleston either. The Catholic Irish that settled in Savannah never saw a "No Irish Need Apply Sign." The fact though Catholics who lived away from the larger cities did not have clergy available. They might not see a priest for 6 months. I would imagine the parents baptised the baby, particularly if the baby was seriously ill. In the Catholic Church baptism is a sacrament that can be administered by laity. Not that every Catholic has the authority from the Church to go around willy nilly baptising people. They were isolated from other Catholics and many eventually married outside the Church.

Actually the 4 southern colonies were established as Church of England colonies.
The Scots and Scotch Irish that came south were Presbyterian. Established churches that required seminary training had difficulty having enough clergy to facilitate every little town. I remember my mother telling how they really thought they were going some place when they went every bit of 10 miles from Manchaca Texas to Austin on a train to get an ice cream cone. My mother was born in 1908.

Any good Baptist will tell you all that is required to be a Baptist minister is the call to preach. However, today I believe most Baptist clergy have seminary degrees. Therefore a Baptist preacher could be a farmer during the week and a preacher on Sunday. Methodism was still a movement within the Church of England at the time of the American Revolution. They had their horseback circuit rider preachers.
So the religious map of the South was changed. Out of Methodistm came the first Pentecostals, Assemblies of God and
Nazarenes.

Answer 3

In researching my family who came from Germany in 1710 and ended up in what is now Germantown, NY they were not always baptized in the same town or village. Some were however and there seems to be no pattern to it. There were several who were baptized "across the river" (Hudson) so that their grandfather could be the God Father. They were what is now referred to as Dutch Reformed. From reading the other postings it appears that patterns vary among locales and among families. As one poster mentioned they may have been born and christened on the ship they were coming to America on. It takes some looking into local and family customs, what the area was like, was it a village, did the family live 10 miles from nowhere ??
best of luck to you !!

Answer 4

Yes, if they were both born and christened at the same place. However, if a family came to america for example, a child may have been born aboard ship. Check the towns vital records.

Answer 5

Like everyone else has said, sort of. Most people lived in the countryside, not the town. They would either take the child to the village church, in Europe and Mexico, or the town church, in some parts of the USA & Canada, or the little country church in many parts of the USA. It was quite common (my 5th GGF did it) for a farmer to donate an acre or two for a church and graveyard. It would be much closer than going into town. They'd get a travelling minister or, often, someone who could read would read the Bible and they'd sing.

The neighbors would help build it and they'd drive to it in horse and buggy every Sunday, or almost every Sunday.

Answer 6

Depends on where the people in question were located. Most of Europe and the UK would have had churches relatively near all towns. Still in areas where populations were sparse there were sometimes priests who traveled to individual villages.
Also, in the American colonies. If you were Catholic it could take a long time to get officially baptized. England held that their empire would be Protestant and so Catholic priests were "banned from doing anything in the colonies of a religious nature. Of course they did anyway, but most priests would have likely traveled from the more tolerant north to the less tolerant southern regions and it could take some time to get a real priest to perform whatever ceremony.
Also if one was in the backwoods, either Protestant or Catholic would have to wait for a priest or minister, or go find one.

One other thing should be taken into account. In time of need, any person may fill the office in order to perform a baptism.
So, if no clergy were available and it seemed needful to have the child baptized, any lay person could have officiated, in which case the baptism would likely occur at or near the place of birth.

Answer 7

Which religion they followed makes a difference, too. Some religions, like Baptist and Adventists, do not baptize infants.

I've also used the concentric circle method in looking for baptism records in Europe. On the map I highlighted the towns with churches of the religion I needed. Then I started searching the records of the nearest churches and worked outward.

I find this is especially necessary with my German ancestors who seemed to get into disagreements with the pastor and change church affiliations from time to time.

Answer 8

Maybe not the same town, we are talking about a time when the world's population was much more rural. But definitely, if they are Catholic (sorry, can't speak to other religion's practices) they would be baptised shortly after birth and by the parish priest. There were more priests and more churches back then (proportionally) so it would have been within about a two hour horse ride from the site they were born.

Answer 9

I've have been researching my family's genealogy for 20 years; and, yes, my experience has been that individuals WERE baptized in the village/town they were born in the 1700's and 1800's.

Answer 10

In short, assume so first. If you can't find them, widen your search. Bear in mind that some rural folks took their time about it and would wait years before they got around to it.

With my folks there was no church in their town-they weren't keen on paying tithes to anyone-so they just borrowed the services of the clergy in the next village.