A beginning class in Latin for family history researchers will be held Jan. 27 to April 13 at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

The class deals with the Latin of parish registers, principally - but not exclusively - from Roman Catholic parishes in Central Europe, including the countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.Designed to teach students to read basic entries in Latin parish registers and to extract information from them, the class will be held each Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. for consecutive 12 weeks in Classroom B120 of the Family History Library. No previous Latin background is required.

The class will be taught by C. Russell Jensen, European reference consultant and author of the forthcoming book Parish Register Latin: An Introduction.

Topics and dates include:

Jan. 27 - Nouns: the first and second declensions.

Feb. 3 - Nouns: the third and fourth declensions.

Feb. 10 - Nouns: the fifth declension; Latinized given and place names.

Feb. 17 - Adjectives.

Feb. 24 - Numbers; dates in parish registers; feast and saints' days; the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

March 2 - Common prepositions and pronouns in register entries.

March 9 - Verbs frequently found in parish register entries; Part 1: first and second conjugations, perfect tense, active voice.

March 16 - Verbs frequently found in parish register entries; Part 2; third and fourth conjugations, perfect tense, active voice.

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March 23 - Verbs frequently found in parish register entries; Part 3: first and second conjugations, perfect tense, passive voice.

March 30 - Verbs frequently found in parish register entries; Part 4: third and fourth conjugations, perfect tense, passive voice.

April 6 - Participles; the ablative absolute; common phrases utilizing the ablative absolute.

April 13 - Handwriting and abbreviations.

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