It was such a treat to see those little drawings while scanning through pages and pages of Latin church records. I thought a lot about the man who made those drawings.
Well - the other night I came across my friend again! Back in January I was looking at church records for baptisms. This time, for the same town, I was looking at church records for marriages - and when the year turned to 1777, there he was again! My artist friend!
Handwriting matches and everything. :-) For the marriage book it looks to me like he drew a field of some kind of grain? Also there is a young oak tree in a pot with acorns, and finally what looks to me like a pear tree with one pear hanging. I'm not sure what he drew under the numbers of the year.
And yes, I know a lot more church Latin now than I did a few months ago.
Also, I thought I had come across populations that liked to use the same names over and over - for instance I have New England ancestors where it's Thomas, son of Thomas, son of Thomas, son of Thomas - I'm not kidding! And the women are all named Elizabeth or Rebecca.
But these Germans who were living in Romania - holy cow did they use the same names over and over. When I was looking at the baptism records - it seemed like the witnesses/godparents, whatever they were (I'm not yet an expert on 18th century Catholicism for Germans in Romania - but don't worry I'll get to that) - the child ALWAYS had the name of one of the witnesses, depending on gender.
So what if you were a creative sort and wanted to give your child a name other than Joannes, Henricus, Petrus, Magdalena, Maria or Anna? Seems like you were out of luck.
Even the unusual names, like Casparius - sure enough, the male witness/godparent had that same given name.
I find it so interesting to look at the original records! It opens up a million additional questions, but it's totally worth it.
Leah, the second page with drawings is really interesting. If it's for a marriage, it almost looks like the priest is wishing a blessing on the couple: wheat for prosperity and plenty; acorn for a strong marriage; and a pear for children. I don't know that wheat, acorn, and a pear represent those things -- just my interpretation -- but gosh, those drawings are priceless! Thanks for sharing them with us.
ReplyDelete