German words in old records · card K

kath.

Kath. is short for katholisch, German for "Catholic"; röm.-kath. means Roman Catholic.

German civil records and many forms have a line for religion, filled in as kath. or ev. (Protestant). It tells you where the church records are: a kath. family's baptisms and marriages are in the Catholic parish, not the Lutheran one, even in the same village.

Mixed marriages show both, as in er kath., sie ev. In such families the children may appear in either church book, so search both.

As seen in a recordGerman civil marriage record, 1890s
Braut: Theresia Hagenmüller, kath., led., 24 J.
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How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "kath.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/german/kath. Last checked 2026-10-28.

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