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RC Baptism - "via vulgo dicta"

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  • RC Baptism - "via vulgo dicta"

    Can anyone please tell me what "via vulgo dicta" means in the context of a Catholic baptism in 1872? I've tried googling but without success.
    I've noticed this phrase appears quite regularly in the baptism register I've been looking at - it gives the baby's name followed by "via vulgo dicta" & the home address, which is not given for other baptisms. I'm assuming that in these cases the baby was too sick or weak to be brought to church & so the baptism was carried out at home, but could be I'm barking up the wrong tree here.
    All ideas gratefully received!
    Many thanks

  • #2
    via means a road, street, etc. vulgo means to spread, part, make accessible.
    dicta means to dictate or present. i dont know what the phrase would mean though.

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    • #3
      Its possible it means they were baptised in a different building/temporary place other than the Catholic Church.

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      • #4
        Thank you both.
        I'm pretty sure that "dicta" means said or stated & I've read that "vulgo" can mean common or commonly so it might mean something like baptism "said in the common street", (not literally!!) but perhaps as in away from the church, ie. at home. The addresses given in the register are all different so it doesn't seem to have been at a temporary church or anything like that.

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        • #5
          I would guess that "vulgo dicta" means "commonly called..."

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          • #6
            Thanks Mary, I hadn't thought of that. It doesn't seem to fit though, unless the newly baptised was named after the street where she lived - in this case Bevington Hill :Big Grin:
            The exact wording is
            "1872 die 2 mensis Feb baptizata est J.... H.... (via vulgo dicta Bevington Hill) filia J.... H.... & B..... H........"
            In all of the examples I have seen in this register the phrase "via vulgo dicta" is a handwritten entry after the name & followed by a street address, not always the same address.
            I have 4 baptisms from my family at the same church over a 10 year period & only one contains this phrase & gives the address, though there are similar entries for other families. I have no problem translating the rest of the baptism entry, I've had to become quite conversant with beginners' Latin! It's just this particular phrase that is bugging me.
            Thanks all for your suggestions anyway, it's good to have different ideas to mull over.

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            • #7
              I think "via" can mean "the way"

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              • #8
                "the road commonly called Bevington Hill" seems to be a reasonable translation. Perhaps it didn't have a formal road name.
                Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                • #9
                  Isn't it a formal way of giving the name in English since the rest of it is in Latin, so translates as commonly called?
                  Caroline
                  Caroline's Family History Pages
                  Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

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                  • #10
                    I think, and I stress think, it may be referring to a common law marriage.............

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Caroline View Post
                      Isn't it a formal way of giving the name in English since the rest of it is in Latin, so translates as commonly called?
                      If you do a google search for via vulgo dicta, you will see many examples (followed by an address in a non-latin language) which corroborate Caroline's above post.

                      Jay
                      Janet in Yorkshire



                      Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                      • #12
                        Sorry, I missed out a word - via is Latin for road so literally "road commonly spoken as". I came across something similar the other day but it was a different Latin phrase which meant the same thing.
                        Caroline
                        Caroline's Family History Pages
                        Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Caroline View Post
                          Isn't it a formal way of giving the name in English since the rest of it is in Latin, so translates as commonly called?
                          Yes, I agree with Caroline. It's because Bevington Hill is written in English and not Latin. "vulgo dicta" being the language of the common people as opposed to the Latin used by the Church.

                          I also suspect that some churchmen may not have been all that highly literate themselves. It's easy to write an entry in the formulaic shorthand used in church registers once you have been taught it but translating Bevington Hill into Latin might have been a step too far for some.

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                          • #14
                            Thanks again all for your helpful comments. It just seems odd to me that the baptism register doesn't have a space for the address & doesn't usually give an address at all except when this phrase is used. It's only a minor point though & I've been lucky enough to come across some children I didn't know about (born & died between censuses).
                            Barbara - though I have many common law marriages in my tree, I know that is not the case here as I have the marriage certificate for the parents, & this is their 3rd child (that I know of!)

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