Returning to the Gemmingen Register of Baptisms, which starts in 1694, a typical entry might be as follows:
The parents (Eltern) are Conrad Keller Calvinist Anna Magdalena. Punctuation and grammar are usually missing, and the facts are simply stated. The father was Conrad Keller. He was a Calvinist, meaning of the Reformed Church. The mother was Anna Magdalena.
The child (Kinder) was Elisabetha Dorothea, who was baptized (assume the dates are baptismal dates, not birth days) on the 8th of Aug in 1694.
The witnesses or sponsors were Jacob Beckhler Schmidt und Bürger von Schwaigern Haus Frau.
In the last, we would probably spell the name as Becker today, omitting the " h " and the " l ", which seem unnecessary to us. He was a smith and citizen from Schwaigern. Schwaigern and Gemmingen are only about three miles apart so the residents of the two villages were generally known in the other village. It is not clear to me but it seems to me that Jacob Beckhler was not the actual sponsor, but his wife was and her name is not given. She is identified only as Haus Frau or house women.
Most logically, it seems there was one sponsor, the wife of Jacob. It may have been that both Jacob and his wife were sponsors.
It is very common to identify the women by the men to whom they are attached. A single girl is identified by her father, for whom we probably learn his name, occupation, and where he lives. A married women is identified by her husband, and we learn the same things about him. Usually, the given names of the females are stated, but in the example above none was used. If the religion is not Lutheran, we are usually told that.
The father, Conrad Keller, was himself a sponsor for the baby just prior to the baptism above. In it we learn that he is a smith (blacksmith) and a Reformed Calvinist. So when Conrad Keller asked for a sponsor for his daughter, he asked a fellow blacksmith. The words " Reformed " and " Calvinist " mean essentially the same thing, and it is redundant to use both words. On most occasions, only one word is used, and it is usually abbreviated as Calv: or Ref:.
During this first year of recording baptisms, there were only five recorded. After the troubles of the preceding years, the church is getting started again. The Kellers were very active in the church, and there seems to have been several families of them.
(17 Sep 03)
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