Record columns
Reading a baptism register, column by column
A baptism register is the backbone of research before civil registration: the child, the parents, where they lived and who stood godparent, entry after entry in the same hand and nearly the same words. Printed columns arrive at different dates in different churches (1813 in England, earlier in many Catholic and Lutheran parishes); before them the same facts are in a running sentence. The handwriting is the priest's or clerk's, and once his letters are learned, every entry in his years reads the same.
- Date
- 1500s onward; printed columns from about 1750–1813
- Columns
- 13
- Handwriting
- Secretary hand in early English registers, Kurrent in German-speaking ones, Latin cursive elsewhere; formulaic, so the fixed words teach the hand before the names are reached.
The columns in order
| # | Column | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Entry no. | The register's own running number for the year. |
| 2 | Date of baptism | The date the child was baptised; the register's date, often within days of birth in Catholic and Lutheran parishes, weeks in Anglican ones. |
| 3 | Date of birth | Written only when the register asks for it (after 1813 in England, earlier on the Continent); otherwise estimate from the baptism. |
| 4 | Child's name | Given name only in most registers; the surname is the father's unless the child is marked illegitimate. |
| 5 | Sex | M or F. |
| 6 | Legitimate | L or a tick; "illeg.", "base born", "spurius" or "natural" for a child born out of wedlock, in which case the mother's name stands first. |
| 7 | Father's name | Full name; in Latin registers in the genitive case ("Joannis" for Joannes). |
| 8 | Mother's name | Given name and, in most Continental registers, maiden name; English registers before 1813 often give only the given name. |
| 9 | Residence | The farm, hamlet, street or parish of the family. |
| 10 | Father's occupation | Written only from 1813 in England; earlier, status words (yeoman, husbandman, labourer) when given. |
| 11 | Godparents or sponsors | One to four names; a godparent is often an aunt, uncle or grandparent and the surname is a clue. |
| 12 | Officiant | The priest or minister, usually a signature or initials. |
| 13 | Notes | Margin notes: a later marriage, confirmation, emigration, or a correction. |
What to watch for on this form
- Latin registers put the father in the genitive: "filius Joannis Schmidt et Annae Mariae" — the names are Joannes and Anna Maria.
- The mother's maiden name is normal on the Continent and rare in England before 1837.
- Godparents (patrini, Paten, sponsors) are frequently relatives; the same names recur across a family's entries.
- Margin notes record a later marriage or death, sometimes decades on.
- An illegitimate child ("illeg.", "spurius", "base born", "unehelich") is entered under the mother's name, sometimes with the father named by her.
Abbreviations and marks
- do / " / „ — ditto — the same as the line above
- Hd — head of household
- Wf — wife
- Dau — daughter
- S-in-L — son-in-law
- Bdr — boarder
- Svt — servant
- Na / Pa / Al — naturalized / first papers / alien
- O / R — home owned / rented
- F / M — free of mortgage / mortgaged
- W / B / Mu — white / black / mulatto in the color column
- S / M / W / D — single / married / widowed / divorced
- x, / , 1 — a tick in a yes/no column
- 2/12 — two months old
- Pa, O, Va, Ind, Ky — state abbreviations in the birthplace column
Type one person per line with cells separated by a tab or a |, in the column order above. Blank cells may be left empty; write [illegible] where you cannot read. The CSV is built by the same code the app uses for its export.
Questions
- How soon after birth was a child baptised?
- Within days in Catholic and Lutheran parishes, often the same or next day; within weeks in Anglican ones. Registers that give both dates let you check the gap; those that give only the baptism date let you estimate the birth.
- What do the Latin words mean?
- baptizatus/a baptised; natus/a born; filius/filia son/daughter; legitimus lawful; patrini godparents; parochia parish; obiit died; eodem die the same day. A register's vocabulary is short and repeats.
About this page
Column lists follow the printed schedule or register form; descriptions are in our own words from the National Archives' census instructions to enumerators, the FamilySearch Research Wiki and the usual parish-register handbooks. This is the same column list Cursive Lens reads the page against; a test in the app fails if the two ever disagree. Last reviewed 2026-10-17.