Translated Phrases in Latin Parish Registers

Many parish registers of Germany and the United States contain entries written in Latin. The true difficulty arises in deciphering the handwriting itself. In German records, the handwriting may use a writing style called Sütterlin. Tough the letters are uniformly written, they are very distinct from the letters of other styles.

The prospect of translating the Latin should not be daunting, since each priest typically used a formulated entry for a birth, marriage, or burial. Here are typical Latin entries and their translations to English and German.

Birth and Baptism

Marriage

Death and Burial

© Thomas G. Kohn, 2013.

Installment 2: The Family of John Reinert (1822-1871) in Europe and America from 1812 to 1985

This post has been revised for announcing the second installment. © Thomas G. Kohn, 2013.

I've been working several years on a large genealogy project that corrects and expands a descendants list of my second great grandparents, John Reinert (1822-1871) and Katherine Blasius-Reinert (1824-1891). Finally, now that I'm semi-retired, I have time to devote to completing the project.

I released the second installment of about 50 pages yesterday, 5 November. I just released the first installment of about 20 pages on 27 July for comment by family members. I placed it at a publishing site for easy access: Installment 01. If you read any of it, please send comments to me at mailto:tgkohn@aol.com—that is the price of the document! As a teaser, here's the revised planned contents of the full document.


Research Objectives

Background on Sources

Towns near the Mosel River 7

Background on Geography

• Towns near the Mosel River
• Hamm-Filzen, Germany 
• Geography
• Parish
• Local Development
• History
• Wasserbillig, Luxembourg
• Geography
• Parish
• Local Development
• History
• Igel, Germany
• Geography
• Parish
• Local Development
• History 
• Reinert History in the Area

• Areas in the United States

• Houston County, Minnesota
• Geography
• Parish
• Local Development
• History 
• Reinert History in the Area 

[Complete to this point]

• Near Tipton, Kansas
• La Crosse, Wisconsin
• Sheridan County, Kansas

Research Techniques

• Church Registers
• Using a Logical Search Order
• Searching From a Known Birth
• Searching From a Known Marriage
• Using the Burial Registers to Corroborate Lives
• Estimating Dates and Broadening the Search
• U.S. Church Registers
• European church registers
• Researching the Reinert and Blasius Marriages
• Researching the John Reinert Birth
• Familienbücher
• European civil registers
• Standesamt Trier-Land
• Peter Blasius I death
• John Reinert and Katherine Blasius marriage
• Standesamt Trier-Saarburg
• Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz
• Registre Communale de Mertert-Wasserbillig
• U.S. Censuses
• Deed Registers
• Plat maps

Conclusions

• Research Goal 1
• Research Goal 2
• Research Goal 3
• Research Goal 4
• Research Goal 5
• Research Goal 6
• Research Goal 7

Future Research

Critical Descriptions of Documents

• Reinert and Simeon Family, 1985

• Physical Description
• Critical Analysis
• Detailed Analysis

• About Our Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother in the Kohn Family, 1974 
• History of the Nicholas Reinert Family, 1983 
• History of the Peter Reinert Family, 1983
• History of the Maria Gillen Family, 1985
• History of the Gertrude Schandler Family, 1984 
• The Kirchenbuch of Igel, 1818-1908

• Baptismal Entries 
• Selection of the Godparents 
• Marriage Entries 
• Burial Entries

• The Familienbuch of Igel, 1706-1899
• Civil Registers from Wasserbillig/Grevenmacher 
• Civil Registers from Konz 
• Amerikaauswanderungen aus dem Landkreise Trier Rheinland 1855-1910, Mergen 1952 
• Other Kirchenbücher from Parishes Surrounding Igel 
• Parish Registers of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wilmette Illinois 
• Baptism 1862-1908 123
• Baptism 1909-1915 124
• U.S. Federal Censuses 
• State Censuses 
• County Registers 
• Plat Maps
• U.S. Parish Registers
• Letter from Peter Irsch

• A Brief History of the Saint Boniface Parish 245

• Section I—Introduction
• Section II—Church Sites
• Section III—Church Structures
• Section IV—Early History
• Section IV—The Pastors
• Section VI—The Rectories
• Section VII—School and School Structures
• Section IX—Cemeteries
• Section X—Records
• Section XI—The Parishioners
• Section XII—Parochial Organizations—Vacation Schools

Pedigree Chart Indexes

The Trade of Leinweber 281

Geographical Catalog of Towns in the Igel and Wasserbillig Area

Maps

• Preußen, 1871
• Germany, 2004
• Rheinland-Pfalz, 2004
• Kreis Trier-Land, 2004
• Igel from the air, about 1985
• Chicago and surrounding states.
• Chicago and inner suburbs, 2004.
• Central Chicago neighborhoods, 2004

Glossary

Index

Bibliography

Using a Familienbuch

A Familienbuch is the informal name for a summary of records for a location. More formal names include Dorfssippenbuch, Ortsfamilienbuch, Ortssippenbuch, and One-place study. Since about 1990, the term Familienbuch has come to mean, in exact German usage, a single-family study. The discussion here is based on my experience with Ortsfamilienbücher (the proper German plural) as they are prepared for Roman Catholic parishes in the Mosel River valley of Rheinland-Pfalz. An Ortsfamilienbuch from another area or from an Evangelic community may have different details.

How an Ortsfamilienbuch is Developed

Few American researchers have much experience with the Ortsfamilienbuch, which has become a standard secondary resource among German genealogists. The Ortsfamilienbuch seeks to summarize another detailed document, a series of documents, or several related documents. The most common summary is of a set of Kirchenbuecher from a single parish. Some very concientious researchers combine references to any extant Standesamtsregister or other civil records. Such is the case with the Familienbuch of Wasserliesch. I have found this particular Ortsfamilienbuch to be exemplary among others of the region.

The illustration contains one page from the Familienbuch of Igel, which was prepared by Franziska Kandel. Her document results from using only the church registers.

The author of the Familienbuch of Wasserliesch was Peter Kohns (perhaps born in1881 to Matthias Kohns and Maria Reinert). I surmise his process followed these steps:

1. First review the marriage entries. Place each married couple identified in the marriage records on an index card, and record the volume, page, and entry number of the marriage.
2. Review the baptismal entries, and add each child’s information on the card prepared for the parents' marriage. Record the volume, page, and entry number of the baptism on this card. Ignore any information provided on birth date and time.
3. When a baptismal entry identify parents who were not listed in the marriage entries, make a new index card for them, and add the child to this card. (This new card may require further research in the civil records.)
4. Review the burial entries, and assign burial information to persons listed on the index cards, and record the volume, page, and entry number of the burial.
5. When the burial entries identify single persons or surviving widows or widowers who are not already on index cards, create a new index card for the person or couple.
6. Arrange all index cards in alphabetic order, by the name of the male head of the household. If several males have the same name, place them in chronolgical order.
7. Use Standesamt registers to fill in gaps and to verify questionable entries.
8. Assign numbers to each family, in strict sequence through the alphabetic listing.

Example

Here is the first complete family listing (numbered family 3) in the Familienbuch of Wasserliesch:

3
ACKVA Nikolaus (Bodenmeister-Aspirant aus Hetzerath wohn. in Karthaus  x 05.09.1854)
oo 16.05.1889 KB 9,102,9
GRUBERT Maria (T.v. Peter u. Katharina KRING [Nr. 402] aus Wasserliersch x 08.06.1861)
x 16.09.1890 Anna Katharina KB 9,42,30 oo 1920 Fried. Wilh. VOHRATH in Karthaus
Paten aus : Hetzerath

From this entry we know the following.

• The husband Nikoalus Ackva is named first, followed by his occupation (Bodenmeister-Aspirant) and town of origin (Hetzerath). The note "wohn. in Karthaus" means that he resided in Karthaus at the time of the record. Most records of the husband would also identify his parents (with "S.v. [son of] Johann u. Maria GIWER" for example), but this man was 35 years old at this marriage, and a well-established journeyman. Perhaps his parents had died already, or were unable to attend the wedding. The note "x 05.09.1854" means that he was born or baptized on the 5th of September, 1854. (German dates are always in the order of day, month, year; they still are in modern Germany.) Most records would include the husband’s death date as "+ 31.12.1900" if the death was documented in the Kirchenbuch or the Standesamtsregister.
• The marriage (the oo symbol) occurred on 15 May, 1889. The marriage was recorded in Kirchenbuch volume 9, page 102, entry 9.
• The bride was Maria Grubert. She was the daughter of  (T.v. means "Tochter von") Peter Grubert and Katharina Kring. Married women are always identified with their birth name, except in the burial records. The burial records may use a married name or birth name, according to the practices of the priest who entered the record. In square brackets is a PDF link to the marriage entry for Maria’s parents. Maria came from "Wasserliersch" as the town name was spelled in 1889. The compiler was scrupulous in recording names exactly as written, or as read in the actual record. Thus one will see four or five variants of the name that is now Wasserliesch, as well as variants on family names and other towns. Maria was baptised on 8 June 1861. No death information is provided.
• The couple had one child who was baptised at St. Aper: Anna Katharina on 16 September 1890, recorded in Kirchenbuch volume 9, page 42, record 30. She married Friedrich Wilhelm Vohrath in 1920 in Karthaus.
• The absence of death information may allow the reader to arrive at two possible conclusions: 1) either the husband and wife had not died by the time of Peter Kohns’ work, or 2) the family had moved from the Wasserliesch parish and Konz Standesamt before their deaths. With the presence of a single child’s birth information, it is possible the family moved before a second child or any later children were born.
• At least one baptismal sponsor (Pate, Paten) at the baptism came from Hetzerath.

Go to the Original Source

If your research has found an Ortsfamilienbuch, don't stop there with your research. Go to the original source! Even the most conscientious researcher can make errors, and even typographic errors can distort important information. For example, I found many errors related to my ancestors in the Igel Familienbuch.

Lists of Familienbücher

You need to know first of all the town where your ancestor was born or married. Only then can your research for a Ortsfamilienbuch be productive. Some websites try to list several—but not all—Ortsfamilienbücher of an area. For example:

• First, search for a community's documents at the LDS Family History Library.
• From the Verein für Computergenealogie, a superb collection of information that has a few pages translated to English
• Another listing from the same organization, under the name GenWiki.
• Author submissions at GoBookee.net.
• A listing of documents prepared by members of Oldenburgische Familienkunde.
• Listing of books prepared by members of die Maus. 
• Listing of books prepared by the Sudetendeutscher Familienforscher.
• An announced start of an Ortsfamilienbuch as a city's communal work for Mülhausen and as work for Scheeßel and Westervesede ...
• Listing by ahnenforschung.net.
• List by Volkmar Weiss. 
• List of OFBs for some towns near Cochem/Zell.
• List of OFBs for some towns in Austria.
• List of OFBs for some towns in Schlesien (Silesia, Ostpreußen, present-day southern Poland).
• Another list of OFBs for Schlesien.
• A list of listing websites! 
• Listing of OFBs self-published on the web and Familienbücher. (One example of many publishing sites.)
• Listing of books for sale on Amazon. (Buyer beware!)
• Listing of books for sale on Ebay. (Buyer beware!)
• Note: also use Google.com or another search engine with the search terms "Ortsfamilienbuch" or "Ortssippenbuch" or "Familienbuch" or "One-place study" plus the town name.

Further Information

• German-language description of an Ortsfamilienbuch.
• Guide to writing an Ortsfamilienbuch.
• A downloadable program to build your own OFB.

© Thomas G. Kohn, 2013.

Adding bookmarks to PDFs

Perhaps you've seen a list of headings at the left side of a PDF you've opened. Maybe not, since the feature is optional, and usually the bookmarks occur while converting a professionally written document into PDF format. In that case, the bookmarks are automatically made, because the various headings have background information that the PDF building uses. You can also add bookmarks to a PDF, if you have Adobe Acrobat or similar software.

When bookmarks are available but not displayed, you'll see something like these icons to the left of your page of text. In order, the icons allow you to open...

• A displayed set of icons that represent the pages of the PDF
• A displayed list of the headings or other bookmarks found in the PDF
• A list of signatures of reviewers who have approved the PDF

When you place the pointer on the bookmark icon, it looks like this:



Then after you select the icon, the left side of your PDF file looks like this:

(Careful! Your display may not look exactly like this, since I am working from Adobe Acrobat.)

The great thing is that you can use Adobe Acrobat to add bookmarks to a PDF file. All you have to do is display a desired page, add the bookmark and add a name. Then, if you want, you can place the bookmark as division within another bookmark or color its text to help readers understand the bookmarks. 

Here's a PDF of the 7th Kirchenbuch from the St. Dionysius parish in Igel, Germany.

Since the original microfilm included images from several small Kirchenbücher together, the top-level bookmarks link to each Kirchenbuch. The second-level bookmarks link to divisions for baptisms (green text), marriages (blue text), and burials (black). The open page here shows—on the left page—the notations about the document that were typed and inserted while the Bistums-Archiv or the LDS was microfilming the book and—on the right—a page of baptisms for the year 1787, with the title "Nomina Baptizatorum" and the baptism record for Peter Becker on 26th January 1787, all in Latin.

This set of Kirchenbücher is pretty well ordered, one book for each year. Other Kirchenbücher aren't so careful. —It's a matter for another post, but there is a reason.— One I have worked with have entries for different years appearing on the same page, and all the entries for one year occur on many pages. The bookmarks can be moved up and down to bring them in chronological order, though they still link to strangely separated pages.

© Thomas G. Kohn, 2013.

Scanning my files

We recently bought a printer-copier-scanner that has a sheet feeder, and that is my opportunity to digitize the huge amount of paper records I have. Especially the photocopied Kirchenbücher (German term for Parish Registers) for the German towns that my ancestors called home.

The Igeler-säule, a monument
to a textile trading family of the
Roman era in Igel, Germany. The
monument stands next to the
hotel owned and operated by
my cousin Oskar Blasius.

I've begun with the full set of early Kirchenbücher from Igel in Rheinland-Pfalz that were microfilmed into the Bistums-Archiv Trier and the Latter Day Saints Family History Library (FHL) as film 0585855. This film includes several large divisions that are called "Items" in the FHL catalog. The Items contain the Kirchenbücher in these groupings:

• Item 1. Hüffelsheim. (registers of Hüffelsheim, not photocopied)
• Item 2. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (registers of Hümmel, not photocopied)
• Item 3. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (not photocopied)
• Item 4. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (not photocopied)
• Item 5. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (not photocopied)
• Item 6. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (not photocopied)
• Item 7. Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB1.
• Taufen (baptisms) 1706-1713, 1720-1732, 1738-1778. 
• Einzelne (various)1794, 1800, 1804, 1806. 
• Heiraten (matrimonies) 1706-1713, 1748-1778 (sehr Lückenhaft). 
• Sterbefälle (deaths) 1706-1722, 1749-1778. 
• Einzelne 1790-1796.
• 9951 [Contents page] Taufen 1706-1713 (p. 4); 1720-1732 (p. 11); 1738-1778 (p. 35); 
• Einzelne 1794, 1800, 1804, 1806 (p. 122). 
• Heiraten 1706-1713 (p. 125); 1748-1778 (sehr Lückenhaft) (p. 127). 
• Sterbefälle 1706-1722 (p. 141); 1749-1778 (p. 142); 
• Einzelne 1790-1796 (p. 161). 
• Spirituale testamentum pro vita et morte. Verschiedene Nachträge 1732-1754 (p. 166).

The old St. Dionysius church of Igel, built in 1759. Note the
Igeler-Säule in the foreground right. The church became a
chapel with the building of a new church along 

• Item 8. Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB2.
• Taufen 1752-1759, 1784-1794, 1797. 
• Sterbefälle 1790/92.
• 3913 [Contents page] Taufen 1752-1759 (p. 1); 1784-1794 (p. 19); 1797 (p. 88). 
• Sterbefälle 1790/92 (p. 89).
• Item 9. Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB3.
• Heiraten 1753-1761, 1784-1795.
• 3914 [Contents page] Heiraten 1753-1761 (p. 1); 1784-1795 (p. 5). 1752: no matrimonies performed. 
• Item 10. Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB4.
• T. H. St. (baptisms, matrimonies, deaths) 1779-1783 (1779, 1781, 1782, 1783) Doppel.
• Taufen 1794, 1797-1800. 

Stairway to the chapel

• Heiraten 1797-1798. 
• Sterbefälle 1797, 1792/3.
• 3915 [Contents page] T.H.St. 1779-1783 (p. 1); 1779, 1781, 1782, 1783 Doppel (p. 57). 
• Taufen 1784 (p. 119); 1797-1800 (p. 119). 
• Heiraten 1797-1798 (p. 133). 
• Sterbefälle 1797, 1792/3 (p. 137).
• Item 11.Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB5 through KB 13.
• T.H.St. 1784-1793.
• 3916 [Contents page] T.H.St. 1784. 
• 3917 T.H.St. 1785-1786. 
• 3918 T.H.St. 1787. 
• 3919 T.H.St. 1788. 
• 3920 T.H.St. 1789. 
• 3921 T.H.St. 1790. 
• 3922 T.H.St. 1791. 
• 3923 T.H.St. 1792. 
• 3924 T.H.St. 1793. 

View of Igel from the old Reinig neighborhood
of Wasserliesch, across the Mosel River. My
great-grandmother Susanna Reinert was born
in Igel, and my great-grandfather John M. Kohn
was born in Wasserliesch.

It has taken about two days to scan each group of 35 pages into one PDF file after another. The resulting 17 files range from about 60 to 275 MB, generally depending on the number of pages. Using Adobe Acrobat, I slim down the file size to the range of 7 to 20 MB and rotate pages as needed, if the photocopies changed orientation at some point. Then I merge each packet of 35 pages back into a single file that represents the full Item.

But the work isn't quite done with these steps. I still must go through each file, add PDF bookmarks to ease navigation, and add comments where I have had post-it notes that contain translations, summaries, orother information.

Update 2013.06.23: All the Igel documents are completely scanned.

For future work, I have digitizing for these locations:

• USA KS Mitchell county 19th-C censuses
• USA KS Mitchell county research trip in 2001
• USA KS Mitchell county maps, church registers, cemetery canvasses, deeds, news articles
• USA KS Osborne county maps, deeds, censuses
• USA MN Houston county maps, deeds, censuses related to families Arnoldy, Gillen, Reinert, Schandler, and Schwinden
• USA OH family documents for Brandon, Cosiano, Coscignano, Deneke, Derry, Flauto, Gast, Hoon, Iacano, LoPiccolo, Maxwell, Morton, Nanik, Pounds, and Ventura
• USA PA Allegheny county documents for families Elliott, Ohnsat, Rahenkamp, and Rothamel
• USA WI Dane county documents for families Butler, Kennedy, and Ryan
• USA WI La Crosse county documents for familes Bauer, Becker, Beranek, King, Kohn, Petrick, and Troyanek

• 

  Igel from above, about 2001
  

  
  

  DEU (Germany) B-W (Baden-Wurttemberg) Breisach documents for families Salinger and Vogel
• DEU B-W Main-Tauber-Kreis Königheim documents for Stephan family, primarily Kirchenbücher 
• DEU N-W (Nordthein-Westfalen) Kr. Höxter Brakel documents for Deneke, Franke, and Wiethase families, primarily Kirchenbücher 
• DEU R-P (Rheinland-Pfalz) general documents, some from Landesarchiv that includes Entlaßungserkundigunge (Permits to emigrate)
• DEU R-P Amerikaauswangerungen aus dem Landkreise Trier Rheinland 1855-1900 by Josef Mergen (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU R-P Krieg am Westwall by Khristoffel
• DEU R-P Kr. Saarburg Saarburg-Filzen Kirchenbücher 
• DEU R-P Kr. Saarburg Wasserliesch Kirchenbücher 1752-1797
• DEU R-P Kr. Saarburg Wasserliesch Kirchenbücher 1752-1907
• DEU R-P Kr. Saarburg Wasserliesch Familienbuch monograph by Peter Kohns
• DEU R-P Kr. Trier-Land marriage extracts from Kirchenbücher  near Igel, 1840-1870 (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU R-P Kr. Trier-Land Igel Kirchenbücher 1818-1908 (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU R-P Kr. Trier-Land "Familienbuch" monograph by Franziska Kandel (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU R-P Kr. Trier-Land Langsur Kirchenbücher 1758-1900 (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU SCSN (Schlesien, a part of former Ostpreußen) Kr. Falkenburg Grüben extracted records from Kirchenbücher
• LUX (Luxembourg) Canton Fôret/Grevenmacher Wasserbillig Registres Paroissiaux

If you, my reader, have a special interest in the digitized or photocopied records, please leave a comment on this posting.

© Thomas G. Kohn, 2013.