30 January 2008

Was Grandma Really Right?


Grandma Neill always told me she could remember being baptized as a child. I never argued with her about it, but I was pretty certain she was wrong (after all, I was there--so I would know...).
My reason for thinking Grandma was wrong was that the church she attended as a child was a Lutheran church which typically baptized children as infants, especially when the parents were already members when the child was born. I just concluded that Grandma was wrong and that she probably had been baptized within a few months of her birth in 1910.
Grandma was right.
She and two of her her siblings were baptized in November of 1910 at Bethany Church in Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois. I'm not certain why the family waited ten years to baptize those three. The other five children of George and Ida Trautvetter were baptized as infants. The church had a pastor during the time between Grandma's birth in 1910 and 1915. Lack of a pastor is an occasional reason for no baptism, but usually Catholics and Lutherans are pretty good about making a baptism happen shortly after birth.
Just goes to show that what you think may be incorrect may actually be right. Research it and find out. Don't assume you are correct---after all, you probably weren't there.