HUNGARIAN FAMILY HISTORY TUTORIAL
Church Birth/Baptismal Registers

1775 Roman Catholic Baptismal Record of a Calvinist

This register is from the Roman Catholic Church in the town of Szekszárd in Tolna county. It is a rather basic Latin-language register in a town that was, at that time, growing rapidly due to an influx of ethnic German Roman Catholics. Many of the older families of the town were calvinistic Magyars, but the Reformed Church had been closed for decades. This page was included because it shows the baptism of a Reformed child by the Catholic priest (the 4th entry) and it illustrates the flexibility in record-keeping necessary in mixed communities.

Click to See Note. for further information about such baptisms.

Format: Hand-drawn tabular Latin language register with only basic information.
Preview of 1775 Baptismal Register.
Click to See Enlarged Document.

Previous Example. Top of Category. Next Example.

Content of Register.

Eight Hand-drawn Columns of Information.

  • Day of Month: In this register, only the numerical day of the month is given in most entries; the name of the month is specified only in the first entry of each month.
  • Name of Priest: Note that idem -- an alternative spelling of eodem -- is used here to indicate "same as above". Also notice that written vertically in this column (for entry #1) is the word gemelli meaning "twins". The entry for the first of the twins is on the previous page. In some registers, twins share a single entry.
  • Given Name of Child: note that in entry #4, my ancestor Sara Sörös is identified in this column as a Calvinist (Calvi).
  • Names of Parents and Godparents in four columns.
    • Given names are translated to Latin, followed by the untranslated family name. Maiden names are used for all Magyar women.
    • In the entry #1, eodem ("same as above") appears instead of the parents names; this is because the parents names are given on the previous page with the entry for the first of the twins.
    • In the case of an ethnic German family (entry #3) the maiden name of neither the mother nor godmother is provided.
    • The relationship between the godparents (if any) is not specified (except the implied relationship in entry #3), providing less information than most baptismal registers.
  • Residence of Parents: most people found in this register are from Szekszárd. Note the unusual abbreviation for the town name: Sex.