Pagans and Wiccans: What does the notation” born of the Beltaine fires”mean in reference to paternity?
01. Jun, 2010 
8 Comments
I am attempting geneology for my great-great grandparents but cannot figure out a paternal line for my ancestor because his paternity simply says born of the Beltaine fires" I am so directing this question because my mother's line was of the old religion in Ireland, and I suspect its all about a religious thing, Beltaine being a religious festival. What does this mean and how do I handle this in relation to geneaology?
I think it means he was born out of wedlock, with multiple possibilities for a father.
I’m guessing someone got laid on Beltaine (it *is* the sexy holiday after all) and they don’t know who the daddy is.
First off, Wicca has nothing to do with the old religion of anywhere.
Second off-
Father unknown…but…Seriously? You seriously have a document that says that? Where is it from, what is it? Seriously, if it exists you might actually have something of great historical import… something most folk think does not exist.
God only knows whose paternal father he was if born as a result of the Beltaine fires…so if you want an accurate geneology, you probably won’t succeed.
Being “born of the beltaine fires” is having been concieved during the old spring fertility celebration, when most adults “celebrated fertility”, to put it delicately.
The actual father would have remained unknown/unnamed and the child would have been considered a child of the goddess and thus twice blessed.
Great Great Grandparent, eh? Is there Irish Gaelic on the birth certificate? If so, post it here and I’ll see if there’s an alternative translation.
Exactly what do you mean by ‘the old religion in Ireland’? Celtic Christianity vs Roman Catholicism? Roman Catholicism vs Protestantism? Something else?
On this festival day it was quite common for people to be, er, rather “free” with their virtues – many a maiden lost her… maidenhead and it was pretty much little short of an orgy! It was also one of the festivals the christian priests had the hardest time stamping out.
I’m thinking that either the mother wasn’t certain of the father’s identity, or that for some reason (like he was aristocracy) his name was not put on the register on purpose. What time period was this? It was very common in the Georgian period and before for a shilling or two to be handed over to backdate a marriage in the register, or for a ginea a doctor would write “death from sores” rather than syphillis on a death cetificate.
I look through old prison records a lot and every now again you get a very flamboyant clerk who will embellish things with his own, erm, flair, so to speak!
Your best bet seems to be to check other records from that town, if the date is right maybe try and access newspapers through the national archive/british library too to see if anything is reported in there that might shed some light.
What’s your surname btw? My Great Grandma was an Irish gypsy! She had love and hate tattooed on her knuckles.. hate how to think she did that in those days!
sorry for the waffling!
Why the Bible condemns geneology – why the BoM does not mention anything about the subject?
Has Joseph Smith restored the fullness of the gospel with another gospel and with another Jesus and with another spirit?
As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer
4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work–which is by faith.
1 Tim 1:3-4 (NIV)
For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
2 Cor 11:4 (NIV)
You see that there is another Jesus and another gospel and another spirit no offence but Joseph Smith received his revelation from an angel !!!
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
Gal 1:8 (NIV)
Well have I taken anything out of context? No offence !!!