Find the names of your American ancestors from Baltimore in these Catholic burial registers. You will find your ancestor’s burial date and place. The original registers may reveal your ancestor’s cause of death such as scarlet fever, consumption, pneumonia, or diphtheria.
Find the names of your American ancestors from Baltimore in these Catholic burial registers. You will find your ancestor’s burial date and place. The original registers may reveal your ancestor’s cause of death such as scarlet fever, consumption, pneumonia, or diphtheria.
The amount of information found in each record may vary depending on the age of the record, the condition of the original register and the facts recorded at the time of the event. For most records, you should find a combination of the following facts:
Name
Age
Birth year
Death year
Death date
Burial year
Burial date
Parish
City
County
State
Images
The images can sometimes give you additional information about your ancestor and we always recommend that you view the original image. You may discover your ancestor’s cause of death and some registers noted if the person was a convert.
These records have been digitised from the Maryland State Archives and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. The Archdiocese is the oldest in America. Among this collection of burial registers is the record for Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American citizen to be canonized as a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church. St Elizabeth Ann Seton founded the religious order, the Sisters of Charity. She also established the first Catholic school for girls in Maryland, a school recognized as the beginning of the Catholic parochial school system in America.
Most Roman Catholic registers were recorded in Latin. Latin was the official language of the Roman Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council allowed the use of vernacular languages in masses. For help deciphering Latin terms found in the registers, please see the below key terms:
Birth (nati, natus, genitus, natales, ortus, oriundus)
Baptism date (datum baptismi)
Birth date (datum nativitatis)
Birth place (locus nativitatis)
Cemetery (cemeterio)
Christening (baptismi, baptizatus, renatus, plutus, lautus, purgatus, ablutus, lustratio)
Child (infans, filius/filia, puer, proles)
Death, died (obiit, defunctorum, defuncti)
Father (pater)
Godparent (patrini, levantes, susceptores, compater, commater, matrina)
Marriage date (datum matrim)
Married together with (matrimonium contraxit cum)
Mother (mater)
Name and residence (nomen et residentia)
Parents (parentes, genitores)
Priest’s name (nomen sacerdotis)
Witnesses (testes)
When (quando)
Where (ubi)
Years of age (aetatis)
If you would like to cite this record in your family history research, Findmypast suggests the following format: [Name of Parish] [(Location)]. Sacramental Registers, 1782 - 1918, [page number], [Item of interest "John Smith and Mary Jones, 17 October 1873"]; Archdiocese of Baltimore. Digital Images. Findmypast. (https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records/baltimore-roman-catholic-parish-registers-browse : accessed DD MMM YYYY).
For example, the record for America’s first canonized saint, St Elizabeth Ann Seton would be cited as:
St Joseph (Emmitsburg, Maryland). Sacramental Registers, 1782-1919, page 37, Anna Elizabeth Seton buried 5 January 1821; Archdiocese of Baltimore. Digital Images. Findmypast. (https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records/baltimore-roman-catholic-parish-burials: accessed 7 September 2018).