Daily AncestorSponsor
A sponsor in a church record is a person who stood for a child, or an adult, at baptism or confirmation and promised to help raise them in the faith.
Sponsor is the formal church word for a godparent: a person who bears witness to a baptism and promises to help with the child's religious upbringing. A second set of sponsors could appear at confirmation.
Sponsors were often relatives or close family friends. A sponsor with an unfamiliar surname may point you to the mother's family or to in-laws, so note every sponsor even when the parents are your target.
As seen in a recordLutheran baptism register, Pennsylvania or Ohio, 1780s to 1880s
Sponsors: Johann Kessler & wife Catharina
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Sponsor." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/church/sponsor. Last checked 2026-10-03.