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Sopron Church Records: The free royal city of Sopron was in a unique position. It is the only major city in modern Hungary that was never occupied/controlled by the Ottoman Turks. [A few Slovak cities also have this distinction.] It was also in close physical proximity to Vienna. A majority of Sopron's citizenry were ethnic Germans, most Magyars and Slovaks living there were in subservient roles. The entire population of the city was almost evenly split between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism in the 17th century, with a handful of Jews. Sopron was one of the first Hungarian cities whose churches maintained vital records -- initially baptisms and marriages -- and the only one with continuous records from that period. The Lutheran congregation's records begin in 1624, the Saint Mihály Roman Catholic parish's records began in 1652. The earliest records of both are written in cursive Gothic script and are in generally very poor condition. As a result, I've found them to be virtually impossible to decipher. But, by about 1700, the records become much more legible, and the Latin is usually written in cursive Roman script. These are the records we investigate in this example. |
Latin Words and Abbreviations: This 1709 Latin-language register is riddled with abbreviations -- one of which I cannot decipher, though it is used repeatedly and its meaning is obvious. So I will take this opportunity to provide a table of Latin words and their abbreviations commonly found in baptismal records. Note that the Sopron scribes seem to append an apostrophe to indicate an abbreviation (rather than the period we use). I am not certain whether that is common usage, but will leave such punctuation out of the table.
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Use of Month Headers: It is typical of this period that a register begins a new year at the top of a new page, and that in-line headers are inserted at the beginning of each month. Such a month header is seen in the 1709 example, reading In October 1709. In this type of register, the month and year the baptism took place was usually not given in an individual entry. Since in a large parish a single month's entries may take several pages, it is sometimes difficult to identify the month and year, after you find an entry of interest. Be very careful in looking over the previous pages to search out where you are. Often that task is more difficult than it would seem. You will note that in Latin, the names of months are the same as in English, as are the standard abbreviations. But, an alternative set of abbreviations are sometime used for the last four months of the year: September = 7-bris; October = 8-bris; November = 9-bris; and December = 10-bris or X-bris. Remember, in earlier times March was the first month of the year. Be careful! |
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The Maiden Name of the Mother: The normal way to identify the maiden name of the mother in a family group is to find it in a marriage record. In this example, I have (so far) not been able to locate the couple's marriage. No maiden name is given in the 1709, 1713, and 1716 baptismal records of my ancestor or her two siblings. Likewise, the maiden name of the mother is not given in her own 1742 death record, or in the 1732 marriage record of her daughter. But, in a stroke of luck, I noticed a 1714 baptismal record of a totally unrelated child for whom this couple served as godparents -- and that record was unusual in that it gave the full name of both the godfather and godmother. This is not the only occasion where I've gleaned useful information from records of unrelated people. So keep watch. By the way, I later found a 1693 baptism in Sopron of a boy who appears to be a brother of my ancestor Éva Mária Zellatzing, and so I think I've found her parents. I need to go back to those virtually illegible Gothic script records of the 17th century to try to prove it! |
Spelling of Family Names: You see in these two examples that the family name, which in my database I spell as Kranawetter is spelled in two very different ways: Kronebetter and Kronawöther. Actually, this name is spelled differently in virtually every occurence of it that I have found in the Sopron RC church records. There are three causes for the spelling difference seen here, and those which you will likely find in many 18th century records. They are:
WARNING. It is very important to remember that just because you use a standardized spelling of a name for your database (either given names or family names) doesn't mean you should lose the spelling of the original record. If you don't make a copy of the original, at least maintain the original spelling in your notes about the event. |
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General Comments on RC Baptisms of Protestants: During the periods when many Protestant churches were closed (primarily between about 1720 and the early 1780s) it was common for the children of Protestant families to be baptized by the local Roman Catholic priest. This was not of great concern because in all major churches baptism was considered to be a Christian sacrament -- not a denomination-specific rite. Protestants baptized by a Catholic priest were always considered to be a part of their family's confession, either Reformed or Lutheran -- though, by law, all children of mixed marriages were considered to be Roman Catholic during this period.
Where the denomination of the child is noted in a given register varies from town-to-town. In places with a very large Protestant population and no Protestant church, a column was often included in the baptismal register to specify "confession". Typically, the entry provided was RK, Luth, or Calv -- for Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist. Other words and abbreviations are also found, including Akatolika (or Akat for "non-Catholic") and Heretika (or Here for "heretic"). In other registers, such as this example, the information about denomination is simply added someplace convenient -- here with the given name of the child. |
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Information on Register Content:
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Note: for unknown reasons the é in és ("and") is missing in several places in this register. Megkereszteltettek Anyakönyve: Register of Baptisms.
Lakhely házszámmal: place of residence with house number. Keresztatyák- és anyák neve és életneme: godfathers' and mothers' name and calling. Keresztelö neve és hivatala: name and office of baptism officiant. Jegyzetek: notes. |