German Parish Registers - What Else is New?
by Friedrich R. Wollmershäuser, Mar 1993
Outline
- What are parish registers?
- Where can parish registers be found?
- Working with parish registers.
- What to do when an entry is missing.
- Sources replacing missing parish registers.
- Printed inventories of parish registers.
I. What are parish registers?
Parish registers are books maintained by parish offices to record the ecclesiastical casualties, i.e. performances by the priest of minister, such as:
- baptisms (recorded with or without the date of birth),
- confirmations (around the age of 14),
- marriages, or banns before marriages, or dismissions to marry in another parish,
- burials (with or without the date of death),
- lists of parish members (often at the begin of the first volume to replace entries of a lost previous volume),
- lists of persons taking the communion or sacrament,
- family registers (Seelenregister, Familienregister) as compilations of family groups on one page,
- later remarks about the whereabouts of parish members,
- copies of baptismal or marriage records shown by people when they moved into the parish,
- lists and biographies of clergymen,
- chronical and miscellaneous notes.
The following records are not parish registers:
- books maintained by parish offices to record financial, construction and other matters,
- vital registers maintained by state authorities,
- private records of sacristans, cemetery administrations etc.,
- accounts of baptismal, marriage and burial fees,
- proceedings of moral courts (Kirchenconventsprotokolle, Kirchenzensurprotokolle).
These types of records may replace missing parish registers (see below chapter V). The time frame of these books is quite different. In the protestant territories, the oldest ones usually start when the reformation was introduced in the pertinent dominion (from the 1520s onwards), in Catholic lands after the Tridentine Council of 1563. Many of these old books have been destroyed during the 30-years-war (1618-1648), by the French invasions around 1690 and during the last war (1939-45). At first, most parishes used just one book for all categories, and the entries ought to be arranged separately in chronological order for every one of these categories. This was often not maintained, and it can be difficult to reconstruct the sequence. In the older books, entries may as well be arranged by places within the parish, by the fathers of the baptized or by the initials of their first names. The extent of the entries may vary from bishopric to bishopric and from place to place. Only when the ecclesiastical and country authorities published guidelines on the recording of casualties from the mid- 1700s onwards, the entries turn to appear quite uniform. The reliability of parish register entries is somewhat questionable. There are contemporary corrections and additions of missing entries in the older books, and there are later remarks by recent genealogists to correct errors (sometimes, these corrections are wrong, however).
II. Where can parish registers be found?
Originally, parish registers were kept at the local parish offices, but they may have been forwarded to other places, such as
- to another parish office of the original parish is not attended any longer,
- to a central parish register office in a city,
- to a central ecclesiastical archives,
- to the local vital registration office,
- to a state archive,
- to a municipal archive.
In addition, most German countries required the preparation of second writings (verbatim copies) of the original registers, which had to be stored separately from the original registers or delivered annually to the district court, from about 1800 onwards to the establishment of vital registration offices (Standesämter) at latest in 1876.
Before 1800, some Catholic bishoprics required the yearly submission of second writings to the bishop's archives. The LDS church has taken many original parish registers and second writings on microfilm, so besides the repositories of the books, they may be checked in LDS branch libraries.
III. Working with parish registers.
The research method depends on the initial information, on the objective of the search and on the extent of the books. It is therefore not feasible to give overall research methods, and I limit myself to a few hints:
- Make sure that your initial entry is correct. When starting with a known birth date, verify this entry first before searching the marriage and death entries of the parents.
- Become aware about the structure of the books and the methods of recording the entries. In many catholic places, wives were registered only by her maiden name in the death registers, and you need to know whether this was the case at a given place to find the correct death entries.
- Watch for biological constraints. A woman giving birth at the age of 50 is as suspicious as a first child being born 5 years after the marriage of the parents.
- Watch for anomalies. If in all entries in a marriage register, either the groom's and bride's parents are recorded or they are denoted as widower or widow, and if such an indication is lacking in just one entry, then there is evidence that something is wrong with this couple.
- Do not trust indexes. If you can find an entry with the help of an index, it is fine, but otherwise, search through the original register page by page. The entry may be recorded and indexed by a slightly different name (Clais instead of Klais), or by a quite different name (if an illegitimate child was recorded with the mother's surname and later on accepted the surname of the presumed father).
- When you find the death entry of a husband and the wife was fairly young at this time, first look for her second marriage before you continue to check the death register. The widow may have remarried and be registered under the surname of her second husband in the death register.
- Places of origin are sometimes listed at unexpected places in the registers, such as: - in an entry on a relative, - in an entry of the sponsors of the children, - in an entry on the confirmation of a child, - at the death of the person, - in the death entry of a person's father, father-in-law or other relative, - sometimes a group of people moved to the same place at the same time from the same area of origin, - a child may have imported by the mother when she married to a place.
- Abstract all information given in an entry - every detail may be of importance for the further research. Such details are the term "weiland" in a marriage entry (indicating the the person was deceased), the mention of someone's ruler, of his nickname, or of the occupation.
- Be careful not to mix up two bearers of the same name.
- If you pick up a birth entry and are not sure if this is the person you are looking for, then check the death, confirmation and marriage registers to find out if the child grew up at all.
- Solve obsolete dates, such as Tuesday after the Sunday Rogate of 1769. Observe the calendar reform.
- Become aware of local customs, especially on name giving and on who might have been a sponsor.
IV. What to do when an entry is missing.
- If the parish registers are there, but the entry is missing: In this case, there may be many possible reasons for not finding an entry, mostly one of the following:
- the casualty did not take place in this parish at all,
- there is a gap in the parish registers,
- the entry was recorded under a different date or on a wrong page,
- the entry was recorded in the registers of another parish covering this town,
- the entry is recorded under a different name,
- the entry is recorded in a separate book or another section of one book, for example a separate register for illegitimates or for the inhabitants of another village pertaining to this parish. - If there are no parish registers available. Here is a listing of other sources which may replace parish registers:
General:
- second writings of parish registers (from about 1780 to 1876 only),
- printed parish registers (in the newspapers of many towns),
- abstracts which were made at a time when the parish registers were still there.
- state vital registers, the earliest starting in 1798.
Birth registers:
- birth certificates (Geburtsschein, Mannrecht),
- entries on penalties for illegitimate births,
- entries in registers of bonded serfmen.
Marriage registers:
- marriage contracts,
- marriage licenses,
- entries about the payment of a marriage fee (Brautlauf, Salzscheibe). Death registers:
- death notes in newspapers.
- death dates in probate records, which often include detailed notifications about the death of the deceased (Sterbfallanzeigen),
- tombstones,
- funeral sermons,
- entries on the death tax of bonded serfmen (Hauptrecht),
- petitions of widows, entries on a second marriage,
- orphans records.
VI. Printed inventories of parish registers.
Inventories of the available parish registers have been published for almost every German state. The following list observes the old political structure (of before 1945):
General:Wolfgang Ribbe, Eckart Henning (eds.), Taschenbuch für Familienge- schichtsforschung. 10th ed. Neustadt an der Aisch: Degener 1990 (with a linsting of published parish register inventories). Eckart Henning, Christel Wegeleben, Kirchenbücher. Bibliographie gedruckter Tauf-, Trau- und Totenregister sowie der Bestandsverzeich- nisse im deutschen Sprachgebiet (Genealogische Informationen vol. 23). Neustadt an der Aisch: Degener 1991 (a bibliography of all books and articles where parish registers were edited in print, but not con- taining the Ortssippenbücher).
Ronald Smelser, Thomas Dullen, Heribert Hinrichs, Preliminary Survey of the German Collection (Finding Aids to the Microfilmed Manuscript Collection of the Genealogical Society of Utah, no. 2). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1979.
Johni Cerni, A Guide to German Parish Registers. Vol. 1: Baden, Bavaria, Wuerttemberg. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1988) (lists the years for which parish registers of microfilms are available at the LDS library, with many errors and wrong references).
Christa Stache, Verzeichnis der Kirchenbücher im Evangelischen Zen- tralarchiv in Berlin. Teil I Die östlichen Kirchenprovinzen der Evan- gelischen Kirche der altpreußischen Union. (Veröffentlichungen des Evangelischen Zentralarchivs in Berlin vol. 3). Berlin: Evangelisches Zentralarchiv 1985.
Martina Wermes et alii, Bestandsverzeichnis der Deutschen Zentralstelle für Genealogie Leipzig, Teil I Die Kirchenbuchunterlagen der östlichen Provinzen Posen, Ost- und Westpreußen, Pommern und Schlesien. (Genea- logische Informationen vol. 24). Neustadt/Aisch: Degener 1991.
A selected listing for several German states and provinces:
Anhalt:Franz Bobbe, 'Die Kirchenbücher in Anhalt' Mitteilungen des Vereins für Anhaltische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 7 (1895) 198-222.
R. Krieg, 'Die Kirchenbücher im Herzogtum Anhalt', Neue Mitteilungen aus dem Gebiet historisch-antiquarischer Forschungen 19 (1895) 79-95.
Baden: Hermann Franz, Die Kirchenbücher in Baden. 3rd. ed. (Inventare der nichtstaatlichen Archive in Baden-Württemberg 4). Karlsruhe: Braun 1957.
Bavaria:J. Klemens Stadler, Erzbistum München und Freising (Pfarrbücherver- zeichnisse für das rechtsrheinische Bayern, 1). München: Ackermann, 1938.
Richard Hipper, Alois Weißthanner, Pfarrbücherverzeichnis für das Bistum Augsburg (Bayerische Pfarrbücherverzeichnisse no. 2). München: Bayerische Heimatforschung 1951.
Anton Schmid, Pfarrbücherverzeichnis für das Bistum Passau (Pfarr- bücherverzeichnisse für das rechtsrheinische Bayern no. 3). München: Ackermann 1937. K. Puchner, Alois Weißthanner, Pfarrbücherverzeichnis für das Bistum Regensburg (Bayerische Pfarrbücherverzeichnisse no. 4). Regensburg: Bischöfliches Ordinariat, 1949.
J. Kl. Stadler, Pfarrbücherverzeichnis für das Erzbistum Bamberg (Pfarrbücherverzeichnisse für das rechtsrheinische Bayern no. 5). München: Ackermann 1941. Karl Puchner, Pfarrbücherverzeichnis für das Bistum Eichstätt (Pfarrbücherverzeichnisse für das rechtsrheinische Bayern no. 6). München: Ackermann 1937. Ludwig Friedrich Barthel, Pfarrbücherverzeichnis für das Bistum Würz- burg (Pfarrbücherverzeichnisse für das rechtsrheinische Bayern no. 7). München: Ackermann 1943.
Wilhelm Biebinger, Pfarrbücherverzeichnis für die Evang.-Lutherische und Evang. Reformierte Kirche des rechtsrheinischen Bayerns (Pfarr- bücherverzeichnisse für das rechtsrheinische Bayern no. 8). München: Ackermann 1940.
Berlin:Karl Themel (comp.), Die evangelischen Kirchenbücher von Berlin. (Einzelveröffentlichungen der Hostorischen Kommission zu Berlin vol. 48; Publikationen der Sektion für die Geschichte Berlins, vol. 2). Berlin: Colloquium, 1984. Christa Stache, Verzeichnis der Kirchenbücher im Evangelischen Zen- tralarchiv in Berlin. Teil II Alt-Berlin. (Veröffentlichungen des Evangelischen Zentralarchivs in Berlin vol. 4). Berlin: Evangelisches Zentralarchiv 1987.Hannover:Fritz Garbe, Die Kirchenbücher in der Ev.-luth. Landeskirche Hannovers. Hanniver: Albrecht 1960.
Hesse (Grandduchy):Otfried Praetorius, Kirchenbücher und Standesregister für alle Wohn- plätze im Land Hessen. (Arbeiten der Historischen Kommission für das Land Hessen) Darmstadt: Historische Kommission, 1939.
Hessen-Nassau:Ernst Kramer, 'Die Kirchenbücher des Bistums Fulda'Familiengeschicht- liche Blätter 29 (1931) cols. 67-70.
Heinz F. Friederichs, 'Kirchenbücher und sippenkundliche Quellen in den Kreisen Hanau, Gelnhausen und Schlüchtern' Rheinische Sippen 7 (1943) 1-13. Manfred Hofmann, 'Die Kirchenbücher des Bistums Limburg' Hessische Familienkunde 4 (1957-1959) cols. 497-502.
K. Spiess, 'Die evangelischen Kirchenbücher im Regierungsbezirk Wiesbaden' Annalen des Vereins für Hessische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung 39 (1909) 1-85.Hohenzollern:Franz Haug: Verzeichnis der Kirchenbücher Hohenzollerns. In: Hohen- zollernsche Jahreshefte 8 (1941, hrsg. 1949) S. 5-29.Pomerania:M. Wehrmann, 'Die Kirchenbücher in Pommern'. Baltische Studien 42 (1892) 201-280.Rhine Province:Heinz Schüler, Verzeichnis der Kirchenbücher der Archivstelle Koblenz des Archivs der Evangelischen Kirche im Rheinland. (Veröffentlichungen der Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz, vol. 30). Koblenz: Land- desarchivverwaltung, 1977.
Anton Krudewig, Neues Verzeichnis der Kirchenbücher der ehemaligen Rheinprovinz. (Veröffentlichungen der Westdeutschen Gesellschaft für Familienkunde, Köln, Neue Folge no. 11). Köln: Westdeutsche Gesell- schaft für Familienkunde, 1977.Saxony (Kingdom of):Hermann Koehler, Sippenkundliche Quellen der ev.-luth. Pfarrämter Sachsens. Verzeichnis der Kirchenbücher und der übrigen für die Sip- penforschung wichtigen Amtsbücher. (Beiträge zur sächsischen Kirchen- geschichte, Sonderheft 45). Dresden 1938.Sachsen (Prussian Province):Ernst Machholz, Die Kirchenbücher der evangelischen Kirchen in der Provinz Sachsen (Mitteilungen der Zentralstelle für deutsche Personen- und Familiengeschichte vol. 30). Leipzig: Zentralstelle für deutsche Personen- und Familiengeschichte 1925.
Schleswig-Holstein:Wilhelm Jensen, Die Kirchenbücher Schleswig-Holsteins, der Landeskirche Eutin und der Hansestädte. 2nd. ed. (Quellen und Forschungen zur Familiengeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins, vol. 2). Neumünster: Wach- holtz 1958.
Silesia:Erich Randt, Horst-Oskar Swientek, Die älteren Personenstandsregister Schlesiens. Görlitz: Starke 1938.Thuringia:Karl Güldenapfel, 'Die evangelischen Kirchenbücher Thüringens' Archiv für Sippenforschung 8 (1931) offprint pp. 1-46.Württemberg:Max Duncker: Verzeichnis der württembergischen Kirchenbücher (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer ý1938). Ludwig Duncker: Kirchenbücherverluste in Württemberg 1939-1945. In: Ergebnisse der württembergisch-badischen Familienforschung (1947) S. 46f.
