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Chicago Lithuanian RC Parish Registers Online (pre-1926)

All Saints (Lithuanian) RC Parish Registers Online (1906-1925)

All Saints (Lithuanian) RC Parish Marriage Register, 1906-1925

• Structure of All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925
  
• Guide to Online Images of All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925
  
• About the Index Pages in All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925
  
• About the Format of Register Pages in All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925
  
• Example of a Typical Entry in All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925

• General Comments About Names in This Register

Link to Online Register (at FamilySearch.org)

On website FamilySearch.org, this marriage register is identified as "Marriages 1906-1925 with index" under the heading "All Saints Parish (Chicago: S State)".  Here is the link to the online register:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-32863-2251-77?cc=1452409&wc=M66G-FTT:39540001,40042701

Structure of All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925

This marriage register is a bound book that consists of:

• a title page;
  
• an A-Z surname index (the index has at least a 20-year gap after September 1915, described later below.)
  
• a section title page
  
• an entry section that consists of pre-printed 2-page-wide register pages that are sequentially numbered from "1" through the last page [probably "200"; from the online index pages it can be seen that there were at least 182 register pages.] Each marriage register page has space to enter 7 marriages.  The pages through 1925 are filled with handwritten entries that are numbered sequentially from 1 through 465. (After 1925, the entry number might have been reset to "1" at the start of any subsequent calendar year).  The earliest marriage entry in the register is entry 1 dated 4 Nov 1906.  The date of the final entry is unknown.
  

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Guide to Online Images of All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925

The following is the summary of information about the images in this set:

• 100 images total

• Images 1-2:  proof pages associated with copying the records
• Image 3: register title page ("Matrimoniorum Registrum; Lithuanicae Ecclesiae Omnium Sanctorum, Kensington, Ill., Archidiocesis Chicagiensis" (Marriage Register; Lithuanian Church of All Saints; Kensington, Illinois; Archdiocese of Chicago))
• Images 4-31:  A-Z surname index to this marriage register (starts by entry number and later changes to be by register page number)
• Image 32: section title page ("Matrimoniorum Registrum" (Marriage Register))
• Images 33-100: Images of 2-page-wide register entry pages from register page 1 through register page 67. The entry numbers are sequential from entry 1 dated 4 Nov 1906 at top of register page 1 through entry 465 dated 6 Sep 1925 at bottom of register page 67.  [There are duplicate images of register page 16 on Images 48 and 49.]

[The actual marriage register book has register pages that go beyond register page 67 and those pages contain entries beyond 1925, but the images available online stop at register page 67.]

About the Index Pages in All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925

There is a gap in this index.  If your immigrant Lithuanian ancestor was married in All Saints church between 26 September 1915 and the end of 1925, the marriage will not be listed in this index.  In general, the index pages appear to be very reliable for finding entries on register pages 1-41 (marriages from 1906 through 20 September 1915, when Rev. F. B. Serafinas was the pastor) but the index was not maintained after that for at least 20 years.  As an illustration of this situation, refer to the example index page for the "Z" names in the index, which has been annotated with red rectangles to highlight the items of interest. 

Typical Index Page in All Saints Lithuanian RC Parish Marriage Register

(red rectangles added to highlight entries identified in description below)

​The first 15 entries (surnames of grooms) have indexes to numbers in numerical order from 70 to 258.  These are indexes to entry numbers (not page numbers) and they are representative of the reliable entries in this index through 20 Sep 1915.  Immediately below that, a new index begins that is indexed to page numbers, and it begins with page 95, which means there has been at least a 20-year gap in the index. The subsequent entries refer to register pages in numerical order (as expected), but there is sometimes an entry with an out-of-sequence page number.  Typically that is an "add-in" index entry to a page in the 20-year index gap.  On this "Z" index page, there is such an entry (highlighted) that refers to register page 52, and there is also a similar entry above it that refers to register page 83. The entries on this "Z" index page extend to register page 152, which are many years beyond the register pages available for online viewing.

​

The title portion of each 2-page-wide register page has:

• a pre-printed entry "Annus ______" (Year ______) at the upper left-hand side of the left-hand page, followed by
  
• the words "Registrum Matrimoniorum" (Register of Marriages (or Marriage Register)) pre-printed at center top of the left-hand page, followed by
  
• a pre-printed entry "in Ecclesia _______________" (in the Church _______________) at center top of the right-hand page, followed by
  
• a page number pre-printed at the upper right corner of the right-hand page.  This page number ("40" in this example) refers to both sides of the 2-page-wide register page.
  

​The blank after "Annus" was meant to be filled out with the year that applied to the entries on the page. On register page 40, the entry is "1914-1915". The blank after "in Ecclesia" was meant to be filled out with the name of the church (in Latin) in which the marriages on that register page occurred.  On register page 40, the entry is "Omnium Sanctorum" (of All Saints).  For All Saints church, the typical entry was "Omnium Sanctorum" until register page 42; after that a new pastor arrived and he typically didn't fill in the blank spaces at the top of each register page. [The pages for the initial period prior to the use of the first parish church in mid-1908 have the same designation.] The overall title would be "Registrum Matrimonium in Ecclesia Omnium Sanctorum", which translates to "Register of Marriages in the Church of All Saints", which I would further shorten to "All Saints Church Marriage Register".

The column-heading portion of each 2-page-wide register page contains 11 column headings, with the first 8 being on the left-hand page.  The column headings are listed below, with my comments about typical entries:

• Column 1 (no column title).  This untitled column provides space further down on the page for seven sets of pre-printed titles for rows called "Sponsi" (re: groom) and "Sponsae" (re: bride).
• Column 2: Numerus Currens (sequential number). The sequential number of this entry in this marriage register.
• Column 3: DATUM (date). Although the typical entry is in Latin, it is easily translated.  The Latin word "die" means "on the day", and the Latin names of months are similar to the English names but with different endings.
• Column 4: NOMEN et RESIDENTIA (name and residence)  See general comments below about given names and surnames.  In this register, the residence is typically entered as the name of a neighborhood within Chicago, with "Roseland" and "Kensington" seen frequently.
• Column 5: LOCUS NATIVITATIS (place of birth); RELIGIO (religion). In this register, the place of birth is typically entered as "Lithuania" or an abbreviation of same, with no added detail. In this register, the religion is typically entered as "Catholic" or an abbreviation of same.
• Column 6: OCCUPATIO. (occupation)  QUOTUM MATRIMONIUM. (which marriage?).  In this register: The occupation is typically entered as "Servus" for the groom and as "Serva" for the bride, for entries prior to Nov 1915. Both terms mean "servant", but I don't know what was the intent of using that term.  For entries Nov 1915 and later, the typical entry for both groom and bride is "Oper.", which means "worker", but I don't know what was the intent of using that term.  My guess would be that this is a vestige of nineteenth-century church requirements for an entry about social status, and that in order to fill in the blank the priests were simply identifying everyone as a "worker" (or member of the working class).  In this register, the typical entry for "which marriage?" is "Primum" for the groom and "Prima" for the bride; both terms mean "first".
• Column 7: AETAS (age). In my experience, the ages entered are not necessarily correct.  I believe that it just wasn't important to people in that culture at that time to give one's correct age.
• Column 8: PATER et LOCUS NATIVITATIS (father and place of birth). See general comment below about given names. In this register, the surname of the father is not entered, because it is understood to be the same name as the surname of the groom or the masculine-name-form of the maiden name of the bride.  In this register, the father's place of birth is typically entered as "Lithuania" with no added detail.
• Column 9: MATER et LOCUS NATIVITATIS (mother and place of birth). See general comments below about given names and surnames. In this register, the mother's place of birth is typically entered as "Lithuania" with no added detail.
• Column 10: NOMEN MINISTRI (name of minister) (= name of priest). In this register:  The typical entry is "F.B. Serafinas, Pastor" through register page 42 and is "P. Lapelis" for later entries.
• Column 11: TESTES (witnesses). See general comments below about given names and surnames. The typical entry has the names of two male witnesses, often with no attempt to indicate which witness might represent the bride or groom. (I would guess that these named witnesses were members of the wedding party, and that the first-named witness was usually the groom's "best man", and that the second-named witness was a male in the wedding party who was from the family of the bride.)  In today's culture, I would expect the second-named witness to be the bride's "maid of honor", but in this 1906-1925 register the named witnesses are typically males (but sometimes a female is listed as the second witness).
• Column 12: ADNOTATIONES (notations).  In this register, the entry in this column is typically blank.

The main portion of each 2-page-wide register page contains space to record the entries for 7 marriages, with the entry for each marriage first having a row titled "Sponsi" for entries about the groom, followed by a row titled "Sponsae" for entries about the bride. 

Example of a Typical Entry in All Saints Marriage Register, 1906-1925

Refer to All Saints RCC 1915-01-31 Marriage Record.

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General Comments About Names in This Register

In general, all of the given names of persons in this register are in Latin (nominative case).  With respect to translating the Latin given names in this marriage register:

• I use Reference 1 to find the Lithuanian and English equivalent names (Reference 3 could also be used).
• Except for transcriptions and excerpted transcriptions of the record, I would not leave the names in Latin when translating the record because the persons never used the Latin forms of their names in everyday life.
• For the given name of a person who was born in Lithuania and never left Lithuania, such as a parent of the bride or groom, the Lithuanian equivalent name would be used (and the English equivalent name would never be used) when translating the Latin name in the register.
  
• For the given name of a person who was born in Lithuania and immigrated to the US, I believe that the Lithuanian equivalent given name should be used, because this record was prepared within an ethnic Lithuanian parish at a relatively early time after immigration. In my opinion, the Lithuanian given names of the groom, bride, and witnesses in this register are very probably the "pre-Americanized" names by which these persons were known in Lithuania.
  
• For various reasons, some Lithuanian immigrants took "Americanized" given names that were not the equivalent of their Lithuanian given names.  [Examples: "Kazimieras" could have become "Casimir" but usually became "Charles"; "Vincentas" could have become "Vincent" but often became "William"; my grandmother "Jadvyga" could have become "Hedwig" but eventually became "Harriet"; my grandmother "Stanislava" could have left her name unchanged but eventually became "Stella".] I believe that in situations such as these the marriage register is likely to have the Latin equivalent of the form of the name that was actually used in Lithuania.

In this register, the surname appears to be typically written as the actual Lithuanian spelling of the surname, except that the vowels are typically Americanized by omitting any diacritical marks.  With respect to Americanizing the vowels, that was only a "slight" corruption because it really didn't cause any loss of information; Lithuanian-speaking people would know where to restore the diacritical marks.