Were both Parents at baptism?

[phil57]

I have a baptism entry for one of my great uncles which shows the names of both parents. But both had died within a few months of each other before his baptism, his father only days before the baptism took place, so it would have been impossible for either of them to be present at the baptism. He was brought up by an uncle and his family, so I assume they would have presented him, but they are not mentioned in the register.

So I agree, the parents names in the register don't necessarily confirm the presence of either of them at the baptism.

[Biggles50]

It totally depends upon who is performing the baptism.

I have a GGM whose Father is unknown, so there is just her name and that of her Mother and the Maiden name of her Mother.  The person performing the ceremony did not apply any comments as to the child being born to an unmarried Mother.  We see “b* child of mothers name”, “base born” etc with varying degrees of disgust written, the enlightened ones simply put the child and mothers names.

If the person performing the Baptism is aware of the status of the Mother he will probably write the names of both parents.

Often we see simply the name of the Father and the name of the Child, in older records.

The records are what they are and we cannot necessarily believe what is written.

The GGM above has her Grandfather recorded as her Father on her Marriage Certificate, so no you cannot 100% trust the records.

[coombs]

I have a great, great aunty baptised in a rural Suffolk village after her father died a few months earlier, and the baptism lists both parents, but not that the father is now deceased. Whereas I have seen some baptisms which can note "father deceased" or "mother now deceased".

If a widow/deserted wife was having children out of wedlock she may have claimed the deceased/runaway husband was the father to save face, and this will not usually be noted in the baptism. The vicar just wrote down whatever he was told, and she may have said "The dad is away at sea, or away in the army". Or the vicar may not even have questioned why one parent was not there.

99.9% of baptisms do not state if the parents were present at the baptism.