Before the Parish Registers Start: German Genealogical Sources for the 16th and 17th Centuries

Friedrich R. Wollmershäuser, 1993
Thanks to Ms. Sheilagh C. Ogilvie for proofreading and corrections

Overview of Article

Five categories of archival sources are discussed first:

• Administration Sources, including oaths-of-Allegiance to a new ruler, statistical records, and records of the privy council and exchequer general (rentkammer).
• Jurisdictional Sources, including court records, deeds, probate records.
• Revenue Sources, including land registers, tax lists, registers of bonded serfs or discharge from serfdom (Manumissionsprotokolle), and annual accounts.
• Military Sources, including muster rolls, lists of able-bodied men
• Ecclesiastical Sources, including records on churches and their membership

Then a section on where to find these archival sources, followed by information about rules and use of German archives.

Administration Sources

The general administration and the jurisdiction were maintained by the same authorities in the period in question, so this category is somewhat arbitrary. Sources upon the sovereignty are included here.

Oath-of-allegiance-lists (Huldigungslisten) were taken at the occasion when a new ruler took over the sovereignty. All men had to join in the district seats and take the oath-of-allegiance to the ruler or his deputies. The lists of those men were often recorded between 1600 and 1800,sometimes only the names of the absent men were written down.

Statistical records are typical for the 18th century and sometimes include household lists, in a few cases indicating even the birth-places of the inhabitants. Such lists of inhabitants may as well have been taken after a fire as a key for the distribution of the incoming donations.

During the age of absolutism, the central administrations took over more and more competencies. The proceedings of central administrations were increasing to sometimes six or eight volumes per year, mostly unindexed. They contain a lot of information about individuals, but these entries are quite hard to locate if one does not have a hint on when a certain case was negotiated. Usually, there are separate series for the negotiations of the Privy Council (Hofrat, Regierungsrat), the Exchequer General (Rentkammer) and possibly other committees.

Citizenship records: entries on the reception to citizenship (in theproceedings of a municipal council, in a register of citizen etc.) and on the discharge from the citizenship (when moving to anotherterritory) or on the reservation of citizenship (when temporarily moving somewhere else).

Vital registers: Some state archives keep the second writings of vitalregisters which were required before the state vital registration (Standesamt) was introduced. Some state archives even keep original parish registers or vital registers.

Jurisdictional sources

A. Criminal jurisdiction (strittige Gerichtsbarkeit).

Court proceedings (Gerichtsprotokolle) include interrogations of thedefendant and the witnesses (with biographical information) and the court decisions.

Interrogations of witnesses (Zeugenverhöre) include up to severalhundreds of witnesses, often giving their name, age, occupation,current and former place of residence, wealth, and the lord to whomthe witnesses were subjected and to whom they were bonded serfs.

Bonds not to revenge for having been in prison (Urfehden) often in-dicate the crime and may replace absent court records.

B. Civil jurisdiction.

Contract registers (Kontraktenprotokolle, Briefprotokolle), in small dominions included in the general administrational proceedings (Amtsprotokolle), list all types of contracts: real estate sales and ex-changes, marriage contracts, inheritance contracts etc., and other documents issued by the authority, such a birth certificates. Often there are separate series of contract and mortgage registers.

Probate records (Teilungen, Ausfauteiakten and other terms) include the name of the deceased and of the heirs and often a detailed inventory of the estate.

Revenue sources

Land registers (Grundbücher, Lagerbücher, Beraine, Urbare and otherterms) include the pieces of land, their owners and the taxes to bepaid for these lands.

Tax registers (Steuerlisten, Steuerbücher, Bedbücher) include thenames of the taxpayers and the annual amount of the tax.

Registers of bonded serfmen (Leibeigenenbücher) include the names of bonded serfmen and their family members. Registers about the dis-charge from bonded serfdom (Manumissionsprotokolle) were maintained in addition in some dominions.

Annual accounts (Amtsrechnungen) include the income and expenses ofa certain office for a given year (not necessarily the calendar year).The income includes payments for having real estate, for the interest of mortgages, protection fee of residents (Beisassen), emigration tax, fees for the release from bonded serfdom, fees for taking overor leaving a farm (Handlohn, Abfahrtgeld), fees after the death of a bonded serf (Hauptrecht), fines and penalties. The expenses may indicate the wages paid to craftsmen, and often there is a category for the fee which could not be collected (in Abgang) telling the reason why. - The enclosures (Beilagen) are also important because they may list payments in detail which only appear as sums in the main ledger.

Military sources

Muster registers (Musterregister) of the 1500s often list all men able for the country defense, and the weapons they own.

There are very few remaining muster rolls of private soldiers serving during the 1700s and 1800s, but the rolls of officers (Stammrollen) are fairly complete.

Ecclesiastical sources

This category includes lists of parish members, reports about the inspections of parishes (Kirchenvisitationsprotokolle) and about the moral conduct of parish members (Kirchenkonventsprotokolle, Kirchenzensurprotokolle).

Where to find archival records

When files or books are no longer needed, they are stored in the basement or attic of the office building for some time. After about 30 years they are either discarded or forwarded to an archive. Usually, state authorities give their records to state archives, municipal authorities to municipal archives, and so on.

When one authority (office, company, school, etc.) is dissolved, the files are either given to the succeeding authority, to an archive, or are destroyed. The files of one authority may end up at different places, as the following example shows: The monastery of Salem maintained an administration office in Ehingen. The office could accept petitions and maintain proceedings and accounts, but had to forward all petitions to Salem for a decision. All cases are therefore listed in the proceedings of Ehingen and in the proceedings of the Salem central authorities.

• The proceedings of these authorities were transferred to the Karlsruhe state archive because Salem itself was taken over by Baden in 1803.
• The jurisdictional proceedings and records of the Ehingen office were transferred to the archive of Prince Thurn und Taxis who took over the subjects of the Salem subjects around Ehingen in 1803. These archives were first in the buildings of the former monastery of Obermarchtal and have been transferred to the Sigmaringen state archive (as a deposit) in the 1950s and will be forwarded to the archive of Prince Thurn und Taxis in Regensburg. Many of the older land registers and revenue records had and will have the same destiny.
• Prince Thurn und Taxis had to convey his revenues to the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1848. All files still in the Ehingen office at that time became property of Württemberg. The annual accounts were transferred to the archive of the Württemberg ministry of finances, later on to the Ludwigsburg state archives and are now in the Stuttgart state archive. The other files were forwarded directly to the Ludwigsburg state archives and are now in the Stuttgart state archive, too.

In other words, the files of one consistent administration are now spread over three different archives.

Organizational methods of archives may follow the following principals:

• Provenance principle: all files created by a certain authority are assembled in one record group.
• Pertinence principle: all files pertaining a certain topic (a town, a surname, a crime or historical event) are assembled in one record group.
• Select principle: all records of one type (land registers, maps, volumes, parchment charters, vital registers) are joined in one record group.

Usually the structure of a given archive is a mixture of these three principles. This makes it quite difficult to locate really all records pertaining to a given topic.

Most larger and some smaller archives have published outlines of their record groups, which help to see if anything helpful maybe there.

The addresses of archives are listed in the following volumes:

• Verein deutscher Archivare (ed.), Archive und Archivare in derBundesrepublik Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. 14th ed.Munich: Verein deutscher Archivare 1986. - Lists addresses andphone numbers of nmerous archives in the German-speaking area.
• Minerva Handbücher Archive. Archive im deutschsprachigen Raum.2nd ed. Berlin: de Gruyter 1974. - Includes addresses and surveysof the holdings of numerous archives in the German-speaking area.
• Amt für wissenschaftliche Forschung (ed.), Archive, Bibliothekenund Dokumentationsstellen der Schweiz. 4th ed. Berne: Eidgenössi-sches Beschaffungsamt 1976. - Archives and libraries in Switzerland.

Many of the older archival records were published in books. Most deeds before 1200 were published in exact transcripts, and many others before 1500 in the form of abstracts (Regesten). These publications are indexed and make it possible to consult the records without going to an archive at all.

Many genealogical sources are accessible on microfilm through the LDS branch libraries or in the archives themselves (often, the original records are not at the archive any longer). Some needed sources can be purchased on microfilm.

Some state archives have collections of microfilms taken from remote sources and pertaining to the range of the archives.

How to work in an archive

The rules of how to use archival records are more or less the same for all archives, and you acknowledge them when you sign the application for using the archives (Benutzerantrag). The important points are as follows:

• Become aware what your actual research problem is, with what type of records it may be solved and where these records are.
• Before you go to an archive at all, try to find out if they have the requested files at all. If they have them, find out if these items have been microfilmed by the LDS church, and in this case you better check them in America, so you are one step further when you start in Germany.
• Make sure by a phone call that the archive is open the day you plan to come, and inquire for the opening hours.
• When you come in, leave your coat and baggage in lockers in a room (Garderobe). Ask for the reading room (Lesesaal, Benützersaal), go there and file your application.
• Tell your problem to the archivist. He may answer you that there is no chance to solve it, or he may hand you out some record catalogues or direct you to the catalogue room.
• Pick up the numbers of the files you want to see, write them on an order slip and submit it to the archivist. Usually there are fixed hours when records are fetched, and in some archives, the number of records per day is limited.
• When the records are handed out to you, take them to your desk and check them. When you have finished, return them to the archivist or to a place designed for this purpose.
• It is not the archivist's job to read and translate entries for you, so make sure about your reading and language abilities before you decide to order a record.
• Do not eat, drink, smoke or talk loudly in the reading room.
• Do not use documents as a layer for writing.
• Reproductions of documents on paper or microfilm are usually pro- vided upon request, but only for private use. The copyright of archival records remains with the archive, and you need written permission if you want to forward the copy to anyone else or publish it. If you publish archive's material, you have to submit a free copy of the publication to the archive.
• Many archives may refer you to a local or regional professional genealogist who is available for further research.

Share your experience at certain archives by writing short articles for American genealogical magazines! This helps others to avoid the mistakes you have made, and to discover sources they might not have thought about.