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Archiver > LONDON > 2002-12 > 1039047122


From: Eve McLaughlin <>
Subject: Re: [Lon] Crisem child
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 00:12:02 +0000
In-Reply-To: <3DED6336.3FC64CDF@ns.sympatico.ca>


In message <>, Al & Melissa Zimmerman
<> writes
>I found an entry in a parish register which lists the burial of a
>"Crisem child of........" Can anyone enlighten me as to what this term
>means? I have looked in numerous Latin dictionaries and on ancient
>terms websites, but have only found one reference which said it was an
>archaic term for the movement made during copulation!

That is not so, and whoever dreamed it up was talking nonsense.
. The frequent opinion is that this is a child who died between
christening, when it was wrapped in a chrisom cloth, and a month later,
when the mother was churched and the cloth returned (washed, I hope).
However, as the vast majority of the babies so buried are nameless, it
seems likely that this is a baby dying BEFORE formal christening,
possible having been signed by the midwife only.
The word occurs as Chrisom, chrisomer, christomer. (?a baby ripe for
christening?)

--
Eve McLaughlin

Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians
Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

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