Daily Ancestorcapellanus
Capellanus is Latin for a chaplain, a priest serving a chapel, a household or an institution.
Capellanus comes from capella, chapel. The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources defines it as a chaplain, a clerk serving the religious needs of a household, and lists chaplains of kings, bishops, lords, castles and troops.
In a parish register the name of a capellanus may stand beside a baptism or burial he performed instead of the parish priest.
As seen in a recordLatin baptism register, Austria, 1820s
Baptizavit P. Gregorius Kolbinger, capellanus
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "capellanus." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/latin/capellanus. Last checked 2026-10-12.