John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1739

I happened to be looking at the birth register for Gemmingen in Germany yesterday.  I decided, as I passed through the 1760s, to copy out some of the given names that were being used there at this time.  The German baptismal registers will show two names for the children if they have been given two names, which is the usual case.  The names that I copied are:

BAPTISMAL NAMES FROM GEMMINGEN, GERMANY Albertina Alexander Anna Barbara Carl Carl Frederich Carl Gottlieb Carl Ludwig Catharina Barbara Catharine Albertina Charlotta Benedicta Christian Gottlieb Christina Barbara Christoph Clara Magdalena Coysa [?] Elisabetha Elisabetha Wilhemina Eva Veronica Friderich Georg Hans Jerg Jacob Friedrich Johann Johann Caspar Johann Christian Johann Christoph Johann Cunrad Johann Dieterich Johann Friderich Johann Georg Johann Jacob Johann Leonhard Johann Michael Johannes Joseph Juliana Friderica Margaretha Maria Barbara Maria Magdalena Maria Sophia Michael Philipp Adam Philippina Christina Wilhelm Wilhelm Rheinhart

In general, this set of names sounds a little different from the ones we have just been looking at.

There are few names here that we did not see in Virginia such as Clara, Rheinhard, Carl, Albertina, Hans, Charlotta, Philippina, and Alexander.  And in reverse to this, we saw names in Virginia that are not here.

In other churches, at slightly different times, the name Hans was used nearly to the exclusion of Johann or Johannes.  So there were definite differences due to geography and perhaps to the pastor who was doing the writing.  I know that many of the Blankenbakers had the name Hans at birth, but were married with the name Johann.

Reading the first names in the baptismal register is usually not difficult.  In some cases, because of the use of Latin letters, the names look very familiar to what we would read today.  The surnames of the parents are seldom difficult to read if you are looking for a particular family.  The technique is to form a mental image of what the surname will look like and then seek this pattern.  Today I was looking for Weber, in particular, Joseph and Susanna.  It was not difficult to find them.

The harder part arises with the occupations and the names of the sponsors.  These could be almost anything and the pastor seems to grow a bit lazy and to have the urge to save paper.  This may be reason that more sponsors are not reported.  It takes practice to read them.
(21 Aug 03)