West Flanders - Catholic Church Certificates (Church Books)

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) defined that baptisms, marriages and burials had to be registered. Only around 1600, this general rule was applied. Church Books (Parish registers) are the main sources of the previous centuries. The great events in life were recorded in the church books.

Baptisms

Search screen-Baptisms

The baptism registers contain the name of the baptized person, but the names of the parents are also mentioned. In general, the data from later years is more extensive than in the early years. In the first years, the name of the father and child and the date of baptism were often mentioned, as well as the godfather and godmother. Later the mother's name was added. Only in recent years also the date of birth and often also the name of the village or hamlet where the parents lived. This will almost always have been the place of birth, but sometimes it says ex: origin, which means that they used to live there and this is not necessarily the place where they were baptized. Sometimes the names of baptism witnesses or baptism lifters are mentioned. These names can play an important role in reconstructing family relationships, because they often concern grandparents or uncles and aunts.

Until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the Church believed that Baptism was the first condition was to be 'saved' (who was not baptised was not a child af God). This vision has been reversed by the Vatican Concile.

Some parishes were sometimes served by the pastor of a nearby parish where also the certificates were recorded. Sometimes, the pastor made a note in the registers. For example, in 1757 Waardamme was served by the pastor of Ruddervoorde. Therefore the certificates of of Waardamme be found in the registers of Ruddervoorde, even though the people lived in Waardamme