In researching my family tree, I have used lots of church
records. Other than census records
church records are probably the records I have used the most since they are so
full of information and clues. Each
country’s records have some differences but there are lots of
commonalities. All record name of the
child, names of parents (including mother’s maiden name) , and
god-parents. The god-parents or sponsors
can be an important clue to other family members.
Catholic Church records show that Johan Jacob Burbach was christened
in St Antonius Church, in Oberselters , Hessen, Germany, in 1732.
For well over a century, Burbach family members were baptized, married,
and buried from St Antonius.
Lutheran Church records show immunizations as well as
sacraments received. Confirmation was
required before marriage would be allowed.
When families remained stationary
it was easy to track back through the years.
In Scandanavia, permission from the church was required before a person
could move to another location. Such
moves were recorded in church records just as entry into a village was
recorded. Norwegian Lutheran christening
records also listed the birthplace of the parents. That’s how I located the birthplace of Martin
Hansen, my great-great-grandfather. In
Norway legitimacy was indicated by the order of the parents names listed in the
record. Mother first, father second
indicated an illegitimate birth. Other
countries just had columns that were checked to indicate legitimate or illegitimate.
Swedish Lutheran record sets included an annual household
inventory or listing of everyone in the family.
In the event that someone had moved, they recorded where they moved to
and when. These inventories included
name, birthday, sex, marital status, and
relationship to the head of the house. Using
the household inventory ( Husförhörslängder)
helped me to find the brothers and sisters of Karolina Nielsson.
Hungarian church records are very similar to the German
church records and are written in a mix of Hungarian and Latin. The records for the part of Hungary that
Augustinus Gulyban came from date back to 1777.
They are very complete with both birth and christening dates, parents
names and where they lived in addition to godparents.
Irish church records are notoriously scarce and pretty much
do not exist before the 1860s. Another
issue is that even if the birthplace is known it is difficult to be sure that
the parish is in the same county. I
recent learned that the records that may be of use are in Tipperary not in
County Limerick or County Cork as expected.
Catholic Church records in the United States are similar to
the ones from European countries in that they are a combination of the native
language of the country and Latin. They
also reflect the changing customs.
Confirmation is received at different ages, notes may be added to the
record. Often the marriage place and
date are added to the baptism record or a death may be indicated by a cross
marked next to a name with a date included.
In fact a note on my grandparents wedding record makes me wonder how they had a Nuptial Mass
in a Catholic Church in 1907 when Adolph was a Lutheran. I have found no record of conversion and at
that time the Catholic Church did not allow such marriages. I haven’t looked for a conversion and maybe I
should since Adolph was also a god-father in 1908 and was buried in a Catholic
cemetery in 1946 both just not done in the years in which they happened.
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