I am submitting the following as an article to the upcoming Niagara County Genealogical Society’s (NCGS) newsletter where the theme is Church Records.
Latin Genealogical Word List by Jeanette Sheliga
The FamilySearch website (www.familysearch.org) is a wonderful resource for genealogists in many ways and one of them is the FamilySearch Wiki. There are over 93,000 articles within the Research Wiki including one titled “Latin Genealogical Word List” located at: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Latin_Genealogical_Word_List. The Latin Genealogical Word List wiki article includes subtopics: Usage, Language Characteristics, Additional Resources, Key Words, Genealogical Abbreviations, Numbers, Roman Numerals, Dates and Times, General Words, External Links, and References.
Here is an entry for the baptism of my 3rd great-uncle, Charles Gollwitzer, in 1857 at St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in Buffalo, NY:
Here is a breakdown of my translation using the FamilySearch Wiki Latin Genealogical Word List page (and a little help from NCGS member, Doug Williams, concerning some of the abbreviations – Thank you, Doug!):
Die [Day] 18 Apr: baptitizatus est [was baptized] Carolus [Charles], natus [born] 17 e.m. [eodem mense = the same month] filius [son] legit [legitimatus = legitimate]: Michael Golwitzer & Marg. [Margaretha] Kleisner, lev. [levantes = the godparents]: Joh. [Johannes] Heiland & A___ [Anna] Gleisner. [Priest Signature]
Taking the Latin out, my translation is:
Day 18 Apr: Was baptized Charles, born 17 the same month, legitimate son: Michael Golwitzer & Marg. Kleisner, Godparents: Johannes Heiland & Anna Gleisner. [Priest Signature].
The FamilySearch Research Wiki has many Word List articles for a variety of different languages. You can find the Research Wiki underneath the Help Tab of the FamilySearch website.
