I am sorry, I wanted to ask this question when we were discussing naming twins the same name, but I have not have not have time to visit the site lately and missed my chance. I could not find the link about the twins even in the search. So, I have started a new thread.
I have a set of twins where I knew of the woman through oral history with my mother-in-law and also later through an obituary from California where it listed her birth date. Her name was Herminia. I was researching the family in Valle de Guadalupe only to find not the baptism of Herminia, but of a Jose Domingo, Herminia's brother. Jose Domingo had a birthdate the exact date of Herminia's birth on her obit. Herminia was not listed anywhere on the microfilm. My mother-in-law had not mentioned Herminia as being a twin nor of any Jose Dominigo. Is it possible that the practice was to baptize only one of the twins? I find this hard to believe, but would they baptize one child in one church and choose another church for the other? Just wondered if there were practices for twins that I do not know about, especially as there was prior discussion in this group of only one of the twins being officially recognized.
Baptism of Twins
I think they would have baptized both twins no matter what, since it is a religous sacrament, unless of course the child died before they could baptize. I think it is possible they went to two different churches if the children had separate godparents. Each godparent couple would have taken the child to their own church. But I couldn't say if that was the situation in your case.
An interesting story in my family was... My grandmother and her brother were orphaned at a very young age (under 5). Both children were raised by their godparents. For some reason the godparents had switched their names (on purpose or accident, who knows?). Therefore Maria Jesus and Jose Refugio became Maria Refugio and Jose Jesus. The mix up wasn't realized until Jose Jesus was trying to get married and they couldn't find his baptismal information. That is they couldn't find a baptismal record for Jose Jesus only for Maria Jesus and Jose Refugio. I guess at that point they realized what had happened. But the whole who's birthdates was who's, etc still confused everyone...
Angie Godina
Baptism of Twins
Dear Angie:
Thank you for the information. I did not know it was the godparents who chose the church. In this case it gives me an idea of where the baptism could have taken place. Thanks again.
Maureen Bejar