Church records: baptisms, marriages and burials

Baptism registers

A baptism entry usually gives the child's name, the date of baptism, the parents' names, and in many churches the date of birth. Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Episcopal, and Moravian registers often name sponsors, also called godparents or witnesses, who were often grandparents, aunts, or uncles.

Be careful with dates. The baptism date is not the birth date. Infants were often baptized within days or weeks, but some families waited months or baptized several children together when a traveling minister came through. In churches that practiced adult baptism, such as Baptists, the baptism entry records a decision made as a grown person and tells you nothing about birth.

Marriage and burial registers

Marriage entries give the date and the couple's names, and often their parishes or towns of residence and the names of witnesses. Catholic entries frequently name both sets of parents. Some churches also recorded banns, public announcements of an intended marriage read on three Sundays, which can date an engagement even when the marriage took place elsewhere.

Burial registers record the burial date, which is usually a day or two after death, not the death date itself. Entries may add the age, a cause of death, and for a child the parents' names. A burial register can be the only death record for someone who died before statewide registration.

Reading Latin entries

Catholic registers, and some early Lutheran and Episcopal ones, were often written in Latin. The good news is that entries repeat the same small set of words. Natus or nata means born, baptizatus or baptizata means baptized, copulati sunt means they were married, and sepultus or sepulta means buried. Filius is son, filia is daughter, and uxor is wife. Ex parochia means from the parish of, and testes are the witnesses.

Godparents appear as patrinus, the godfather, and matrina, the godmother. Defunctus or quondam before a name means the person had already died, as in filius quondam Petri, son of the late Peter. Names themselves are Latinized: Joannes for John, Jacobus for James or Jacob, Maria for Mary. Write down the Latin form exactly as written before translating it.

German-speaking congregations often wrote in German script, and Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Polish, and other immigrant churches wrote in their own languages. The structure of each entry is usually the same as in Latin, so once you learn the pattern for one entry you can read the rest of the page.

Different churches, different records

Each tradition kept its own kinds of records. Congregational churches in New England recorded baptisms, admissions to full membership, and dismissals to other churches. Quaker monthly meetings recorded births rather than baptisms, marriages with long lists of witnesses who signed the certificate, removal certificates when members moved to another meeting, and disownments when members broke the rules, such as by marrying outside the faith.

Baptist records mostly list members, because Baptists baptized believers rather than infants. Methodist churches kept baptism records as well as membership rolls. Membership rolls showing when someone joined, moved away, or died can still place a family in time and place. Quaker records before 1752 number the months instead of naming them, and First Month meant March until the calendar change of 1752, so read these Old Style dates carefully.

Finding the right church

Start with what the family itself tells you: an obituary naming a church, a marriage record naming the minister, or the cemetery where they were buried. Ministers' names can be traced to a denomination and congregation. If the family was German, Scandinavian, Irish, or Polish, look for the church that served that community in their town.

Records generally stay with the congregation that made them. If a church closed or merged, its records usually went to the successor congregation, a regional denominational archive, or a diocese. In United Methodist practice, for example, baptism and membership records stay at the local church and pass to the annual conference archives if a church closes with no successor.