Latin Church Records

Once again, greetings, friends and guests.  Last time, I explained some common German terminology that will come in handy.  Today’s lesson will be on Latin—yes, you read that correctly.  Understanding this “dead language,” is actually more useful than most people would think.  Knowledge about it will help you become a more capable German genealogist.

Background Information

One evening, I was watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding—spoiler alert: Its about two people getting married (surprise, surprise).  Anyways, the groom-to-be is named Ian.  In order to have an Orthodox wedding, he must first be baptized into the church.  Instead of using our vernacular English, the priest performs this sacrament in Greek.  Due to my understanding of linguistics, I immediately recognized the cognate used for Ian (“Ioannis”).  Unfortunately, there will be no Greek in today’s post (though some of its elements may be shared next week).

Various religious cultures use liturgical languages—meaning that they hold sentimental value due to their historical or spiritual associations.  For that reason, Ian was baptized in Greek—rather than in his native English.  For western Christians, Latin enjoyed prestige and far-reaching influence during the Middle Ages.  Even when German dialects (which will be discussed in a later post) took over, Latin’s employment in religious documents persisted into the 20^th century.

To begin, let’s discuss some important facts about the alphabet.  Many ancient manuscripts use what 21^st-century westerners call “all caps.”  The reason for this was that “lower case” letters didn’t exist.  The letters ‘A’ and ‘O’ could be combined with ‘E’ to create the ligatures ‘Æ’ and ‘Œ.’  In dealing with “Ecclesiastical Latin,” these combinations typically—though not always—correspond to the German ‘A’ and ‘O’ with umlauts (‘Ä’ and ‘Ö’).  For example, while the Latin “Matthæus” is rendered as Matthew in English (using ‘E’ in place of the ligature ‘Æ’), German uses the form “Matthäus.”

The classical alphabet did not have the letters ‘J,’ ‘U,’ or ‘W.’  Some readers in my audience may be thinking: “Then, how would German scribes spell out given names that normally use those letters?”  Many modern-day speakers—including English- and German-speakers—don’t realize that languages have evolved over time.  Thus, words and even characters will transform, as they adapt to new generations and cultures.  There is a notable exception regarding the letter ‘W’:  Despite not being a “Latin” letter, it was typically included when dealing with given names (like “Wilhelm”) or place-names (such as “Wittenberg”).

The letter ‘V’ could function as either a vowel (almost sounding like ‘oo’ as in juice) or a consonant (similarly to the English ‘w’ as in wind).  A great example of both usages is ‘VITVS’ (which is the original form of Vitus)—which would be pronounced like “wee-toose.”  Over time, the letter ‘U’ was created to function as a vowel.  From that point onward, ‘V’ was treated like a consonant.  Most romance languages pronounce the letter like ‘V’ (as in victory).

The letter J (pronounced like ‘y’ in yawn) simply derived from the letter ‘I,’ as a means to easier pronunciation.  If a letter appearing to be ‘J’ is followed by a consonant, then it is probably the letter I.  However, vowels may be preceded by either ‘I’ or ‘J.’  With that background, here’s something that needs to be remembered: The two pairs, ‘V’ with ‘U’ and ‘I’ with ‘J,’ are actually interchangeable.  For instance, Julius could be also rendered as “Ivlivs,” “Iulius,” or even “Jvlivs.”

While ‘K’ is often a substitute for ‘C’ in German, Latinized names will often use ‘C’ and sometimes even ‘Q.’  Thus, the name ‘Jakob’ in Latin could be rendered ‘Jacobus.’  Both ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ were taken from the Greek alphabet and placed at the end of the Latin alphabet.  The letter ‘Y’ was used as a vowel for foreign words (like the Greek-derived word, mystery); it should never be pronounced like the English consonant (like yodel).

Vocabulary

It should be noted that Latin uses masculine, feminine, and neuter (non-gender) terms.  The masculine terms often times end in ‘-us’ while feminine terms often end in ‘-a.’  Not only are there gender-specified nouns, but there are also gender-specified adjectives.  The terms “filius” and “filia” mean son or daughter respectively.  The words “pater” and “mater” refer to father and mother.  “Uxor” and “marita” are common terms for wife while “maritus” designates husband.  “Conjux” simply means spouse—male or female.

 Latin has similar cognates to English words.  For instance, the descriptors “baptizatus” and “baptizata” both mean baptized (masculine and feminine respectively).  One blessing in disguise is that Latin names have six singular cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, and vocative.  This makes documents very easy to read—because we know who plays what role.  To illustrate this concept, let’s decline the name “Petrus” (which corresponds to the English and German name Peter):

Case	Singular
Nominative	Petrus
Genitive	Petrī
Dative	Petrō
Accusative	Petrum
Ablative	Petrō
Vocative	Petre

Don’t worry, the nominative and genitive forms will cover most of your needs.  The word “nominative” derives from a Latin word, meaning name.  Genitive forms are possessive cases; one major use for these is designating parentage.  German documents can be a little confusing because they do not use a consistent pattern for familial relations.  In contrast, Latin sentences can place the persons in whichever order because the nominative and genitive case make the relationships crystal clear.

Suppose that one wanted to write the following phrase in Latin: Karl, son of George and Catharina.  To create a genitive form, change the ‘-us’ to ‘-i’ (in the case of males) and the ‘-a’ to ‘-æ’ (in the case of females).  One would use the nominative case for Karl (Carolus) and the genitive case for George and Catharina (“Georgii” and “Catharinæ”).  There are a few ways that one could construct this sentence.  Here is one example:  “Carolus, filius Georgii et Catharinae.”

A Word about Names

When I was in high school, names recorded in my family tree often surprised me.  One day, I came across the name “Franciscus.”  I looked up the name and discovered that it was a Latin form of the name Francis (or “Franz” in German).  In reality, his mother would not have used this name to call him for dinner.  Remember to use the vernacular form of a name.  If this name is found, it should be extracted as “Franz.”  It is highly recommended that name-lists be consulted to determine what German name corresponds to the form used in Latin.

An example from my own pedigree

In one of my German families, there was a daughter named Viviana.  Her parents were Johann Mareis and Agatha.  To my surprise, her name was written down as “Bibiana.”  The side-bar has a copy of her entry in a Latin church record.  Below is a transcription:

Bibiana            22^ta decembris nata et die sequenti

baptizata est honestorum parentum

Joannis Mareis, et Agatha filia

legitima, cuig [cuius] patrini errant Joannes

Brenner et Maria Anna Mayrin.

Here is my translation:

Viviana was born on the 22^nd day of December and baptized the following day.  She was the legitimate daughter of the upright parents, Johann Mareis and Agatha.  The witnesses were Johann Brenner and Maria Anna Mayrin.

Conclusion

The entry above comes from a parish record, all written in Latin.  Learning this language can be hard work, especially when dealing with new vocabulary terms and name cases.  On the other hand, it can also be very fulfilling to be able to personally read and understand a small moment of someone’s life.  By combining skills in both German and Latin, you will be better able to find deceased relatives.  Next week, I will be discussing abbreviations and symbols commonly used—both in German and Latin records.