Reading Old Handwriting and Latin in Church Records

Practical techniques for deciphering old handwriting in parish registers, plus the essential Latin vocabulary for baptism, marriage and burial entries.

The first old register you open looks like a wall of scribbles. The tenth looks like handwriting. The difference is not talent; it is a handful of techniques and a short vocabulary. Here they are.

Techniques for old handwriting

• Read the whole page first. Every entry on a page follows the same pattern and is written by the same hand. Find the words you know (the name of the parish, the months, filius or filia) and use them as a key to the letters.
• Build an alphabet. On a scrap of paper, copy each letter as this clerk writes it, from words you are sure about. Long s looks like f; u and n are often identical; e and c differ by a hair.
• Compare with the index. Many registers have an alphabetical index at the back, written more carefully.
• Count the letters. If the surname you expect has eight letters and the scribble has eight strokes, you are probably right.
• Zoom out. A word that is unreadable at 400% often becomes clear at 100%.
• Use context. The godparents of one child are often the godparents of the next; the witness at a wedding is often the bride's brother.

For German-language records you will also meet Kurrent and Sütterlin scripts, in which e looks like n and h has a loop below the line. A printed alphabet chart next to the screen solves most of it.

Latin for baptisms

• baptizatus / baptizata est — was baptised (he / she)
• natus / nata — born
• filius / filia — son / daughter
• legitimus / illegitimus — legitimate / illegitimate
• parentes — parents; pater — father; mater — mother
• patrini or levantes — godparents
• ex — from (a village); in domo — in house (number)
• conjugum — of the married couple; agricola — farmer; hortulanus — smallholder

Example: Die 12 Martii baptizatus est Joannes filius legitimus Jacobi Kowalski et Mariannae de Nowak conjugum ex Krzątka — on 12 March was baptised John, legitimate son of Jacob Kowalski and Marianna née Nowak, spouses, from Krzątka.

Latin for marriages

• copulatus / copulati sunt — married (were joined)
• juvenis — bachelor; virgo — maiden; viduus / vidua — widower / widow
• annorum — of years (age); praemissis tribus bannis — after three banns
• testes — witnesses; dispensatio — dispensation (for related spouses)

Latin for burials

• sepultus / sepulta — buried; obiit — died; mortuus — dead
• aetatis — of age; provisus sacramentis — having received the sacraments
• morbus — illness; febris — fever; senectus — old age

Months and dates

Januarii, Februarii, Martii, Aprilis, Maii, Junii, Julii, Augusti, Septembris, Octobris, Novembris, Decembris. Beware of 7bris, 8bris, 9bris and Xbris: September to December, from the old Roman calendar, not July to October.

Numbers

unus 1, duo 2, tres 3, quatuor 4, quinque 5, sex 6, septem 7, octo 8, novem 9, decem 10, viginti 20, triginta 30, quadraginta 40, quinquaginta 50. Ages are often written as words.

Keep a transcription

Type a full transcription of each key record into the notes of your program, with the original spelling, and add a translation. When the record becomes an illustration in your family history book, the transcription goes under it, and the next generation will not have to learn the handwriting again.