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Translating Latin Vital Records, Part III

© Eva Holmes

Here, as promised, is a step-by step example of translating a vital record from Latin into English. I'll be using my grandmother's baptism record as an example.

1. Registrum Baptizatorum in Ecclesia Registry of Baptisms in the Church

Quite a few of these vital records were printed in books made especially for the task, with blank spaces to be filled in by the recorder. If you can't make a copy of the page, or take a photograph of it, make sure to note what the top of the page says. It's important to know if you are looking at a book full of baptisms or births.

2. Ego infrascriptus baptizavi Mariam Cesta I, as written below, have baptized Mary Cesta,

You'll probably recognize several of the words in this sentence. 'Ego' has become a part of the English language. When you see 'scriptus,' you might think of the word 'script.' 'Baptizavi' is a very close cognate to our 'baptize.' Quite a few of our English words are based on Latin, so you won't have to turn to the dictionary too often.

You might also notice that the person who filled this form out was not very particular about word endings. Instead of writing Mariam Cestam, as it would be in Latin, he has chosen to write Mariam only in the accusative sense (direct object) and Cesta in the nominative (subject).

3. natam die 2nd Decembrus 1912 born on the second day of December, 1912.

And these endings really do matter. It can often be *extremely* difficult to read the handwriting in these documents, harder than figuring out a foreign language! If you're having a hard time determining the name of a child, the ending on that word 'natam' means a lot. The 'am' ending lets you know that a female child was born, while the 'um' ending would tell you that the baby was a boy.

You'll soon learn which recorders you can trust and which you can't. Some of the documents I have are full of spelling errors-- the kind where a name is spelled differently three times in the same document, all written in the same hand.

Also, there is no punctuation in this document. In Latin, lines 2-5 are one sentence. The only stand-alone verb in those lines is 'baptizavi.' 'Natam' is a past participle, like our words ending in 'ed.'

4. ex Giovanni Cesta e loco Port Henry; olim Italia to Giovanni Cesta from the place Port Henry, formerly from Italy

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