Re: St-Jacques "unknown" parents

edsmail@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

> The first 10 years or so of St-Jacques parish register in Montreal
contains,
> almost exclusively, the baptisms of children of "unknown" parents.  A
> child's surname appears only rarely.  It's rather difficult to
understand
> how many presumably illegitimate children or, perhaps, orphans could
have
> been brought to the baptismal font year after year, in this one parish. 
Is
> there a reason for this?  A priest with a very narrow view of what he
would
> accept as "known" parents perhaps?  Or some other explanation?

I even have in my data "on [date] one child baptized from Van Solms" 
(Utrecht RC baptisms). Van Solms is the surname of the father in this 
case. That is what I call an informing notation.
Date of baptism known.
Name of child unknown
*** of child unknown
Firstname of father unknown
Name of mother unknown
No witnesses mentioned.

(literal text:
1741
3 Jann[uary] Baptisata Proles van
Solms.)

But even then its not hopeless. I found her to be Dorothea van Solms. As 
she was later mentioned in some deeds together with the whole family. 
The proof is not perfect (how could it be with this enormous amount of 
information) but at least 80% likelyhood.

What I want to say is that it is of all countries and dependent solely 
on the one doing the registration in that particular timeframe.

Regards,
Richard

-- 
Richard van Schaik
f.m.a.vanschaikREMOVE@[EMAIL PROTECTED]