How To Use Catholic Christening and Baptism Records Around the World

Catholic christening and baptism records are an important resource for genealogical research in timeframes before the advent of government-sponsored civil registration. However, practices surrounding baptism, christening, and the creation of records documenting those events vary between religious traditions. In this blog series, we explore some of the varied practices and content of christening and baptism records in different Christian traditions. This article explores baptism and christening records in the Catholic church.

Baptism and Christening in the Catholic Church 

Baptism is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic church and represents an individual’s initiation into the faith and cleansing from sin, among other aspects of spiritual life. While the terms christening and baptism are often used interchangeably because they were frequently performed simultaneously, baptism refers to the sacrament. In contrast, christening refers to the naming of a child or the adoption of a Christian name. Historical traditions surrounding a child’s baptism varied depending on the time, place, and culture, but some essential elements of baptism and christening in the Catholic church have remained relatively consistent. Since baptism is seen as necessary for salvation, and given high rates of historical infant mortality throughout the world, historically children were often baptized within a few days or even on the same day they were born. In instances where children were “in danger of death,” anyone (frequently midwives) could perform an emergency baptism, which might later be recognized in parish records. The baptismal ceremony itself often includes the following elements: reception of a child into the church by sponsors or godparents and the priest, liturgical readings and prayers, anointing with oil, blessing of the baptismal water, pouring of the water over the child or immersion of the child in the water, anointing of the child with holy chrism oil, dressing of the child in a christening garment, lighting of a candle, and concluding blessings or prayers.  

As part of Catholic baptism, the parents and godparents of a child are entrusted with the spiritual upbringing of the child in the faith, and historically, these individuals were also entrusted with the upbringing of a child in the event of the parents’ decease. Godparents were often selected from among the family members and close associates of the child's parents, and a child was frequently given the same name as the godparent of the same sex. A child's name was usually selected from the names of saints, including patron saints of a parish or the saint for the day of baptism or birth of a child.  

Early Catholic Christening Records 

The Catholic church instituted record keeping of baptisms (as well as marriages) on a church-wide basis in 1563 as part of the twenty-fourth session of the Council of Trent. The justification for keeping these records was to prevent forbidden marriages between individuals for whom an impediment of spiritual relationship existed (between a child and their sponsor, a child and the individual who baptized them, or between a child’s parents and the sponsors of that child). Specifically, parish priests were instructed to register the names of children baptized and godparents or sponsors of the baptism in a parish register. These records often also included information on the parents of the baptized child.  

Before the Council of Trent, some dioceses and even governments had issued their own regulations regarding the recording of baptismal records in parish registers. In other instances, parish priests may have taken it upon themselves to keep a record of baptisms and other rites for the members of their parish. As such, some Catholic parish registers date back to the 1400s or even 1300s. Even so, christening records dating to this timeframe are rare, and more commonly, baptismal records for a parish (where they still survive) typically date back to the late 1500s or early 1600s or to the date of the parish's founding.  

In 1614, the Rituale Romanum, established by Pope Paul V, included forms and templates that parish priests were instructed to use to record baptisms in their own dedicated books. This form included the following elements:  

• The date of the baptism 
• The name of the priest 
• The name of the parish church and the town 
• The sex of the child 
• The names of the parents of the child 
• The given name of the child 
• The name, residence, and parentage of godparents.  

After this timeframe, baptismal records typically included at least these elements and sometimes additional details such as the child's date of birth or age, the names of grandparents, whether the child’s parents were married, or the relationship between the child and the godparents.  

Early baptismal records were often recorded in Latin, the language of the church, but gradually, baptismal records began to be recorded in the native languages of the countries where the church was established.  

Catholic Record-Keeping Practices and Access 

Parish priests were tasked with recording and maintaining parish registers, and over time, additional instructions were given in various dioceses as well as at the church-wide level regarding the content, form, and preservation of records. Most often, original parish records are kept in the parish where they were created. When and if a parish closed, the diocese usually archived the records of that parish. Bishops often inspected and examined the parish registers during their official visits. In some dioceses, duplicate records of parish registers were required to be created and regularly submitted to the diocese. Alternatively, original historical registers of a parish might be sent to a diocesan archive after a specific timeframe. Yet, in other instances, civil authorities for local governments might have required regular submission of duplicate registers of parish registers for civil registration, and those records might be located in government archives.  

Some online collections of Catholic baptismal records are available through popular genealogical websites, including FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, and other websites with narrower regional focuses. Digitization of these records depends on contracts and agreements with local dioceses, parishes, and, in some cases, government organizations and is, therefore, by no means universal. If the records of a parish where your ancestor lived are not yet digitized or available online, accessing original records may require an onsite visit or correspondence with the local priest or diocesan archive.  

A World Tour of Catholic Christening and Baptism Records 

The record-keeping practices for baptisms in the Catholic church are evident in the records of many countries in Western Europe. These same record-keeping practices spread and evolved with the expansion of the empires of France, Spain, Portugal, and other European powers. As a result, Catholic baptismal records can be found worldwide. Here, we review some examples and their associated historical context.  

Catholic Records in Spain for Genealogy Research 

In the following baptismal register from Cartagena, Spain, in 1884, we observe several features typical of records in Spain. Baptismal records were recorded in chronological entries in paragraph format. The first baptismal record for Diego, son of Cristobal Lopez and Maria Montes, includes a marginal note reporting his later marriage to Isabel Lapata Alcala in 1917. Marginal notes by parish priests also sometimes reported the legitimization of illegitimate children or might include minor notations indicating that a child died in infancy. In Cartagena, a major urban center by this time frame with residents from all over the world, these baptismal records also report the nativity and origin of the parents and even the grandparents of the child being baptized. Including a child’s grandparents was a feature common throughout Spain and in many areas Spain colonized throughout the world. Meanwhile, the third entry for Luis Mariano indicates that he was born to unknown parents and only identifies his godparents.  These records also reported the exact date of birth of the child. 

These records are accessible through FamilySearch from digitized images of microfilm copies of various parish registers filmed in 1987 at the Diocesan Archive of Cartagena-Murcia. Given the consistency of the handwriting across this record set, it is likely that the parish priest submitted a duplicate copy to the diocese.  

 Baptisms from the Santa María de Gracia parish in Cartagena, Murcia, Spain, in 1884. Image courtesy of FamilySearch.  

Catholic Records in the Philippines 

As an example of the similarities between baptismal records in Spain and other areas of Spain’s colonial (or former colonial) empire, we share a 1912 baptismal register from the parish of San Vicente de Paul in Manila, Philippines. Though the Philippines were under American jurisdiction by this time, the baptismal record is written in Spanish and follows many of the same features as the previously discussed baptismal record. It likewise presents baptismal records in a chronological paragraph format and reports information on the grandparents of a child. In this record, Angelita Arrieta West was identified as the daughter of Charles West (a native of Minnesota, son of Jonhn [sic] and Anise West ) and Rosario Arrieta (a native of Manila, daughter of Vicente Arrieta and Rafaela Peña). 

While this record is likewise available online through FamilySearch as a digitized copy of microfilms filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, the original records are housed at Adamson University in Manila.    

  Baptisms from the parish of San Vicente de Paul, Manila, Philippines, in 1912. Image courtesy of FamilySearch.  

Catholic Records Research in France 

In this 1767 parish register from Marest-Dampcourt, France, we observe that baptismal and marriage records were recorded in the same volume in chronological order. The baptismal records in this image include descriptions of the occupations of the child's parents, the exact date of birth, and the relationships between the child and the godparents. These records also indicate whether the parents or godparents were able to sign the baptismal record.  

These records are available online (as with many pre-1793 French Catholic church records) through the Department Archives of the website of Aisne. However, the images come from microfilms of Department Archives documents filmed in 1993 by the Utah Genealogical Society. Why are these Catholic parish registers housed in government archives? Part of the answer comes from the history of church record-keeping practices in the Kingdom of France. In 1539, the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts was passed by King François I, which required parish priests to keep baptismal registers and submit those registers every year to a local court registry office. Initially, compliance with this requirement was infrequent (as evidenced by the reiteration of the requirement in several additional royal edicts over the 17th and 18th centuries). Still, with each successive edict, compliance gradually improved.

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the state assumed control of the property of the Catholic Church, including its archives. Local parish registers became the property of commune offices, duplicate registers in court registry offices eventually came to be housed in department archives, and some copies of parish registers held by diocesan archives were likewise seized and incorporated into department archives. As a result, many Catholic church records from before 1793 (the advent of government-sponsored civil registration) are available online through Department Archives. Images from these archives are also sometimes available through commercial websites like Geneanet, Filae, Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch.   

 Parish register of Marest-Dampcourt, Aisne, France in 1767. Image courtesy of the Archives Departementales de l’Aisne.  

Catholic Christening and Baptism Records in French Canada 

France likewise exported its record-keeping practices to its colonies. This 1689 baptismal register from Cap-Santé, Quebec is mixed in with marriage records. In format and content, it is similar to the French record described above, naming the parents, their residences, the birthdate, the godparents, and relationships (if any) with the child or other individuals. In some of these baptismal records, the husbands of godmothers are identified. As with the French record above, this record is a duplicate copy of the parish register sent to the government for civil registration purposes.  

These records, available through Ancestry.com, are reproductions of microfilms created in the 1940s by the Institut Généalogique Drouin at courthouses throughout Quebec, Ontario Acadia, and even the U.S. These and additional images can also be accessed through the Drouin Institute's online resources.  

 1689 Parish Register from Cap-Santé, Quebec. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com 

Catholic Records in Germany 

Not all Catholic baptismal records were recorded in paragraph form. For example, this 1855 Catholic baptismal register from Bochingen in Württemberg (modern-day Germany) records many baptisms in a tabular format showing the number of the entry, the name of the child, the names of the child’s parents, the place of birth, date of birth, date, and place of baptism, the name of the priest who performed the baptism, and the names of the sponsors. 

This baptismal register comes from digitized microfilms at FamilySearch.org, initially filmed in the Diocesan archive. Other German records are sometimes found on Ancestry.com or Archion, among other websites.  

 Baptism book of Bochingen (Oberdorf), Württemberg. Image courtesy of FamilySearch 

Catholic Record-Keeping in the United States 

After migrating to the United States, many Catholics joined parishes associated with other immigrants from the same country. In one such parish, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish in Philadelphia, we observe many baptisms for children of immigrant Irish families in the 1890s and some German surnames. The baptisms, recorded in a tabular format, are organized under Latin headers for the entry number, name of the child, date of birth, date of baptism, residence (left blank for all entries in this case), names of fathers and mothers, names of sponsors, name of the priest performing the baptism and annotations. We note that for baptisms performed by Joan J Hickey, names of children, parents, and godparents were recorded under Latin equivalents, while baptisms performed by other priests were recorded under English names.  

This record is available online through FindMyPast, which has extensive collections of Catholic church records from New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and other dioceses in the United States.   

 1891-1892 baptisms of Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary parish in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Image courtesy of FindMyPast.com  

Catholic Records in Cape Verde 

These 1858 baptismal records from São Salvador do Mundo parish, Santiago, Cape Verde, off the coast of Africa, are written in Portuguese (Portuguese explorers colonized the islands in the 15th century). Though similar in format to some of the French and Spanish records discussed previously, they offer fewer details, reporting only the date of baptism, name, parentage, residents of parents, and godparents of the children baptized. Of note in this record is the mixture of legitimate and illegitimate (or natural) births. In other areas of the world, baptisms of legitimate children and baptisms of illegitimate children were recorded separately. Also, in some regions, baptismal records might have been divided by race or might have been separated for enslaved people and free individuals.   

These records are held at the Arquivo Historico Nacional of Cape Verde and were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 2004. They are available online through FamilySearch.  

 1858 Baptisms from São Salvador do Mundo parish, Santiago, Cape Verde. Image courtesy of FamilySearch.  

Catholic Record-Keeping in Brazil 

Similar to the record from Cape Verde above, these 1898 baptismal records from Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, provide minimal details regarding the subjects. However, among these records, we observe some interesting details. The third entry for José reported that he was the natural (illegitimate) son of Luis and Anna Fravezi, Italian nationals. In the fifth entry, Josepha was baptized on 9 October 1898 by José Defrancheschi, a congregant of the parish, because she was in danger of death.  

These records are digitized from a microfilm taken by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1980 at the Curía Metropolitana of Mariana.  

 1898 Baptisms from Nossa Senhora da Assunção Parish, Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Image courtesy of FamilySearch 

Conclusion 

While Catholic baptismal records vary in content, form, and detail depending on time period and locality, they are an excellent resource for establishing the exact or approximate birthdate and birthplace of an ancestor as well as that individual's parentage. Because godparents were often family members of the parents of a child, their identities can also aid in extending an individual’s ancestry through indirect evidence and in understanding a family’s network of social relationships.  

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