Chicago Roman Catholic Parish Registers Browse

Depending on the event type, the amount of information provided will vary. Generally, you should be able to discover the following details:

• First name(s)
• Last name
• Event year
• Event date
• Event place
• City
• County

The Archdiocese of Chicago was first established as a diocese in 1843 and later as an archdiocese in 1880. The archdiocese serves the Catholic population of Cook and Lake counties in northeastern Illinois. There are six vicariates within the archdiocese and 31 deaneries.

• You can narrow your search by year, event type, parish, city, or county.

• Use the previous and next arrows or the image counter in the image viewer to navigate through a selected collection.

• If you wish to search by a name, explore the indexed searches in the Useful links and resources section.

Most Roman Catholic registers are in Latin. For help deciphering Latin terms, 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)
• Married together with (matrimonium contraxit cum)
• Mother (mater)
• Name and residence (nomen et residentia)
• Parents (parentes, genitores)
• When (quando)
• Where (ubi)