Daily Ancestoridem
Idem is Latin for "the same": in a register it means the same person or thing named just before.
Idem means the same. A clerk may write idem instead of repeating a name, a place or a sponsor, much as an English clerk wrote do. for ditto.
Work out what idem points back to, which is usually the nearest matching item above. Indexers sometimes miss it and leave a name blank, or index idem as a name.
As seen in a recordSponsor line of a baptism entry (ejusdem, of the same man, is a form of idem)
Patrinus Georgius Klein; matrina Anna, uxor ejusdem
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "idem." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/latin/idem. Last checked 2026-10-01.