Continuing the discussion from BAPTISM vs. CHRISTENING: closed topic re-opened, posting appended.
I’m testing the macOS application MacFamilyTree version 11 (MFT for short). It’s an macOS only application, but it has some nice features that could be implemented in Gramps.
I did a GEDCOM export from Gramps and a GEDCOM import into MFT. Everything seems fine. MFT has a feature similar to the gramplet “What’s next”, and for all my persons MFT suggests to add “Christening” event. But all my persons has “Baptism” event. In MFT this event is called “Child Baptism”.
I’m running Gramps in the Danish translation, and here there is the same situation as in the German translation - the same word is used for both baptism and for christening. The Danish word is “Dåb” similar to the German word “Taufe”.
So I asked perplexity:
In genealogy, what is the difference between baptism and christening?
Answer
In genealogy, the terms baptism and christening are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings and origins:
- Baptism:
- A sacrament in Christianity signifying admission into the faith. It involves the use of water and the Trinitarian invocation (“In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”) and symbolizes spiritual cleansing and rebirth128.
- Baptism can occur at any age—infant, child, or adult—and is a central practice in many Christian denominations such as Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Methodism15.
- It is considered a sacrament in most Christian traditions and is essential for salvation in some denominations28.
- Christening:
- Traditionally refers to the naming ceremony of an infant during which the child’s Christian name is bestowed. This often occurs as part of a baptism service but focuses on the naming aspect167.
- Historically, christening was specific to infants and could take place at home or in a church setting with or without a religious context1.
- In modern usage, especially in the Church of England, christening is synonymous with infant baptism3.
Genealogical Context:
- Baptism records are critical for genealogical research as they often include details like the child’s name, birthdate, parents’ names, date of baptism, godparents’ names, and location1.
- While baptism is the sacrament itself, christening refers to the broader ceremony that includes naming. The two events are frequently recorded together in church registers49.
In summary, baptism emphasizes the spiritual act of initiation into Christianity, while christening highlights the naming aspect of the ceremony. Both terms are often used interchangeably today but may carry different connotations depending on historical or denominational contexts.
Whether to use baptism or christening may be more of a cultural tradition, but when the same word (“Dåb”) is used for both it is really difficult to distinguish between the two.
MFT has a FamilySearch feature, that runs in the background and compare persons in MFT to data in FamilySearch. The findings can be imported from FamilySearch to MFT and vice versa.
It looks like this:
The FamilySearch feature finds christening in FamilySearch, but it doesn’t consider baptism in MFT. This might be based on culture as MFT is developed in Germany and FamilySearch is USA based.
So what can we (Gramps) do about this? Well, I think MFT has a good answer.
In MFT event types is not just a list of words, but entities with different properties, e.g. corresponding GEDCOM tag.
My suggestion is that Gramps implements a similar solution, where event types are in a table with properties. One property could be which GEDCOM versions can be used for the GEDCOM tag.