Catholic Church records

Catholic Canon Law requires that sacramental and other details of the faithful should be kept, but records were not always diligently kept and the majority of records that survive are baptism or marriage registers. Registers were maintained in a variety of formats, with early registers recording all types of sacraments in one volume. There was no standard format for registers, and they can consist of small notebooks, larger unformatted ledgers or pre-printed registers. Some records are in Latin but the language used is not overly-complicated and the phrases are relatively straightforward to translate.

The earliest Catholic parish records in Scotland date from 1703 for the mission of Braemar but this is one of only three parishes in Scotland with records dating from before 1745. There are only 16 missions in Scotland with records dating from before 1800 and a further 94 missions have surviving records dating from between 1800 and 1855. The information contained in the original registers can be quite minimal and varies from parish to parish and over time within each parish.

The following sacraments or other church activities generally result in parish records.

Baptism. Baptism or birth registers may record the following:

name of the child
date of baptism
date of birth
legitimacy
father’s name
mother’s name (including maiden surname)
place or parish of residence
father’s occupation
names of witnesses (occasionally with occupation, address and/or relationship to the child)
name of the priest.

Note, however, that some registers record only minimal information such as the names of the child and parents and a baptismal date.

Convert registers. In many cases, the records of converts are to be found in baptismal registers. Converts are generally individuals who have reached adulthood, consequently the information regarding the conversions is limited regarding parentage and families.

Convert registers may record the following:

name of the convert
date of baptism
date of birth
legitimacy
father’s name
mother’s name (including maiden surname)
place or parish of residence
father’s occupation
names of witnesses (occasionally with occupation, address and/or relationship to the child)
name of the priest.

Note, however, that most convert registers record minimal information such as the names of the convert and a baptismal date.

Confirmation. The sacrament of confirmation is generally performed when an individual is a child. In some periods, confirmation may have taken place as young as seven years old, in others as old as 12 years old. These are useful for estimating the age of a child in lieu of any surviving baptismal records. Confirmation registers may record the following:

name of the child
date of confirmation
a confirmation name taken by the child ( a saint’s name)
parents’ names
age
name of the priest or bishop conducting the confirmation.

Note, however, that some records contain only minimal information.

Confession. The sacrament of confession (sometimes called penance) usually precedes Holy Communion. Confession registers do not include details of the confessions themselves but record that an individual went to confession before receiving Holy Communion.

Confession registers may record the following:

name of the individual
date
place or parish of residence
name of the priest.

However, in practice most registers record minimal information such as the names of the individual attending confession and a date

Marriage. Until 1834 Roman Catholic priests were subject to fines and penalties if they conducted marriages and therefore marriage registers were not always maintained.[1] Some Roman Catholics had banns read in the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland and recorded in the registers of proclamations of banns, in order to comply with the requirements for a regular marriage. Some marriages were recorded in the Church of Scotland marriage registers (the Old Parish Registers) even although the marriage took place elsewhere and may also have been recorded in Catholic marriage registers.

Marriage registers rarely record much more than the names of the individuals being married. They usually record the date of marriage, often with the information that the banns of marriage have been duly proclaimed. Usually only the marriage date will appear in the index. Marriage registers may record the following:

date of marriage and an indication that banns had been called
name of bride
name of groom
parish of residence
parish of origin
occupation of the groom
name of the bride’s father
names of witnesses
name of officiating priest.

However, it is also possible that only the names of the bride and groom are recorded along with the name of the officiating priest. Some records are in Latin.

Death, burials and funerals. A death, burial or funeral register may record the following:

name of the deceased person
date of death
date of burial
address
place or parish of residence
age
name of a relative (perhaps a widow, or parent if deceased was a child)
name of the priest
cause of death.

Note, however, that some registers record minimal information such as the names of the deceased and a death/burial date. Some records are in Latin.

Seat rent registers. A number of churches in the nineteenth century reserved seats for parishioners in return for payment of a fee. These are very useful in confirming the residence of ancestors in a particular parish and also in identifying where your ancestors sat in the chapel.

A seat rent register may record the following:

name of the individual
date
location of the seats in the church

Sick Calls registers. These record the visitations of a priest to a sick person. A sick person might have recovered, but the date of a visit may be an indication to the subsequent death of the sick person.

A sick calls register may record the following:

name of the individual
date
address
name of a priest

Status Animarum

This type of record is a ‘state of the souls’ – an enumeration of all Catholics within a particular area at a particular time. These records should have been diligently and regularly kept, but their survival is somewhat irregular. At best a status animarum will record the following:

name of the person
address
date of compilation of list
relationships to others in households
age (usually for children)
birthplace
occupation.

In a basic record you should find the name of an individual and a place; other records are more detailed with addresses given, family groups shown, and in a small number of cases ages and places of birth. These are valuable census substitutes.

Compiler: Andrew Nicoll (2010)

Related Knowledge Base entries

Churches – Roman Catholics in Scotland

References

[1] Marriage (Scotland) Act 1834 (4 & 5 Will. IV c. 28).