The brown ink, handwritten in Latin, bleeds through the thin, yellowed paper of the baptismal record. The record is so old that it predates the establishment of the Diocese of Boston in 1808. Back then, the diocese was a mission, and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, where this record is from, was simply known as the Chapel of the Holy Cross.
Thomas P. Lester, director of the Archdiocese of Boston Archive and Library, carefully runs his finger along the text to find the names he is looking for.
"It's a pain to pick through the Latin," he explains.
In the messy cursive scrawl, he finds it: Jan. 25, 1790. Lucius, John and Mary, children of Peter and Rebecca of Bristol, Rhode Island, are baptized, in the presence of their sponsors. Beside the names of the sponsors are the words "Tres servi in hoc oppido."
While those words could translate to "Three servants in this town," Lester believes that it translates to "three slaves in this town."
It is unknown whether those words refer to the baptized or their sponsors. Their stories -- their last names, their family history, their social status, and their eventual fates -- seem to end there. Like many enslaved people in the historical record, their lives are mysteries illuminated only by scant fragments.
"This might be the only written record of someone," Lester said.
You can read more in an article by Wes Cipolla published in theBostonPilot web site at: http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.php?ID=195857#