Peter,
the pointing finger in general means that the recoding priest wants to explicitly mark/note/bring to everbody's attention something.
It's a graphical mark i.e. for the Latin words "nota bene", abbreviated as NB (which you may also find instead in similar cases) - meaning: "please note" or in a more colloquial way "heads up".
Other than that you're right. However, there's a tiny but important aspect missing, since the text reads (I don't transcribe everything in order to make it easier to understand):
Andreas Heinrich Schmidts, und seines Eheweibs Mar-
garetha einer gebohrenen Bauerin frühzeitiges Söhnlein
wurde gebohren den 21. Januar, und folgenden Tags getauft,
nachdem die Eltern den 5. Jan. .... copuliret worden.....
Translation to English:
The little son, not born in time (literally: too early born), of Andreas Heinrich Schmidt and his legal wife, Margaretha, nee Bauer, was born on January 21 and baptized on the following day, after the parents got legally married on January 5....
In other words: the parents had an indecent sexual relationship prior to their marriage (that's what the priest wanted to bring to everybody's attention and as the record further tells the couple had to do penance prior to their marriage), got married shortly before this child was born, so that this child wasn't illegitimately born.
Hope that helps.
Vera
