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What happens if parents do not have their child baptized in a church?

LegacyUser
LegacyUser ✭✭✭✭
August 15, 2020 edited August 16, 2024 in Search
What happens if parents do not have their child baptized in a church?

I am researching my Dutch wife's family, predominantly in Gelderland and Friesland. I have been looking at church "doop boeken" records, but cannot find a record for one of her ancestors. The question occurred to me - what if the parents do not wish to have their child baptised? Did such thing happen? Where would the birth be recorded then, if it is before the civil registration records began?

Referred by admin to @Nordic Countries Genealogy Research​ 

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  • Paul W
    Paul W ✭✭✭✭✭
    August 18, 2020 Answer ✓

    Actually, even if a child was baptised, the record might have been destroyed or very difficult (if not impossible) to find. For more recent events, census records can be useful in estimating a likely date of birth. However, I have many individuals I have entered to Family Tree about whom I have no clue whatsoever about their birth date. If you can't make a reasonable estimate from any other source or evidence, you just have to leave the field blank - as with unknown dates of marriages and deaths.

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Answers

  • AnderssonLynnMilton1
    AnderssonLynnMilton1 ✭
    August 17, 2020

    Probably a rare occurrence, but it does happen. More common in more recent times say into later 1900s.

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