Latin Language and Script:

Sample Documents.

Baptism, Steinbach, Hesse, Germany, 1791: Unusual Wording.

This sample came to our attention because of the phrase "nata et renata", literally "born and reborn". There are some other interesting features. We leave it to others to work out the proper names. This record comes from Steinbach, a village in the community of Hadamar, Kreis Limburg-Weilburg, Hesse, Germany.

Transcription

Notes: The name of the child is Maria Barbara Ludovica. The initial M. could only be understood as Maria in this context, any other name beginning with M would have been spelled out, or else abbreviated in a way that would reveal whether it was Margareta, Magdelena, Martha, etc. The parents are Andreas and Rosina, and they are named in the genitive case — as is the adjective natæ, although you have to look very closely to see that the final letter is in fact æ. The date abbreviated 30^ma Aug. is clear enough, but what is the grammar behind it? Dies (day) is masculine, but is sometimes used as if it were feminine, especially when referring to time. Also, dates are often stated in the ablative case. The adjective for thirtieth is tricesimus (masculine) or, in this case, tricesima (feminine, same spelling in the ablative case). So, the date is [die] tricesima Augusti.

"Nata et renata" can only mean that the child was born and baptised the same date, thus "born and (figuratively, theologically) reborn". We can rearrange the text so far, using the normal English word order: Maria Barbara Ludovica filia Andreæ Demar et Rosinæ natæ Gerzergin (?) nata et renata [die] tricesima Augusti.

The name Andreas is one of many men's names that comes from Greek, and which therefore follow a different pattern in the Latin case system. This name, like several others such as Thomas, follows the endings of the first declension feminine, even though it is obviously masculine. In effect, it is a masculine name of the first declension where the nominative case is irregular:

1. Andreas (nominative)
2. Andreæ or Andree (genitive)
3. Andream (accusative)
4. Andreæ or Andree (dative)
5. Andrea (ablative)

Obviously, this pattern can lead to confusion with the feminine name Andrea, which would look identical in all cases except the nominative! In medieval times, names such as Andrina or Andrineta are sometimes encountered, possibly intended as feminine derivatives of Andreas. Apart from those names, we haven't encountered a real "Andrea" in Latin records to see how this situation would be handled. In all probability, many genealogists have turned Andreas into Andrea, and the same is likely true for other names that follow this pattern.

The "levantibus" (and this part is in the ablative case, another example of the "ablative absolute" construction) refers to the people who held the child up over the baptismal font (literally, raising up, ablative plural of levans, present participle of levo). We can use the participle as a noun, levantes, meaning the people who hold up the child over the baptismal font, or we can treat it as an instance of the "ablative absolute", meaning "Andreas (note the ablative form, Andrea) Demar and Maria Barbara (these names are the same in both the nominative and ablative cases, except for the placement of the accent) Bauschin all from Steinbach holding up [the child]". The abbreviation "oibus", with a stroke over the middle of the word, is very similar to the way the word omnibus would have been abbreviated in medieval times, by omitting the middle letters, leaving just enough to suggest the outlines of the word and its grammatical ending, and with a stroke over the word to tell us that we are looking at an abbreviation.

The later notation below uses "Patrina" as the feminine of "Patrinus" (godfather), instead of the more common word "Matrina" (godmother). Evidently the two people named "were assigned" (assignata est) as the godparents (they had specific responsibilities in that period), presumably with their permission. They were probably not present at the baptism, and the "levantes" thus served in their place. The godmother is apparently Ludovica Meiners, wife of a noble (?) who served on the church council — if that is correct meaning, she would probably be mentioned many times in this church book, and so her identity could be confirmed. The godfather named here is evidently Count (comes) Carl de Lipp (or perhaps we should say Carl von Lipp), probably a local nobleman. In some areas, it was very popular to curry favor with the local big-wigs by asking them to serve as godparents for your children.