Mecklenburg Gazetteer Introduction
by Daniel Schlyter
The Family History Library has had an extensive collection of
microfilmed records from Mecklenburg since the 1950s but some of these were not
being used effectively. About eight years ago, I determined to prepare a simple
reference work to make the collection easier to use. I was particularly
concerned with the 1819 census collection. It seemed nearly impossible to find
the census returns for any specific village. So, with the help of volunteers, I
decided to index the localities in the census. As the project developed I
decided that the resulting list of localities could serve as a gazetteer and
since it was already in computer format it could be worked into a very useful
tool for genealogical research. The project became more and more involved as
technology gave me more resources to work with and experience gave me more
ideas.
As the project finally comes to completion, the results are
much more extensive than originally envisioned. This book provides a discussion
of the sources for genealogical research in Mecklenburg, chief of which are
church records and the 1819 census. To facilitate the use of church records, it
includes a listing of all localities in the duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and
of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and indicates the parish to which each belonged. In
addition, it gives helpful information about the availability of the 1819 census
returns for each locality.
In 1936, a parish register inventory of Mecklenburg was
published entitled Mecklenburgs familiengeschichtliche Quellen (Sources
for Mecklenburg Family History) (Hamburg: Richard Hermes Verlag, 1936). That
book, compiled by Dr. C. A. Endler and Edmund Albrecht reflected forty years of
study by the archivist Dr. Friedrich Stuhr. It included a list of towns and
villages in Mecklenburg based on information extracted from the parish
registers, the state calendars, and the archival records. Such a list is called
a gazetteer The gazetteer in Endler and Albrecht's book made it possible to find
the most obscure localities in Mecklenburg. It also included old, forgotten
names of towns including towns which no longer exist (going back to 1650). It
showed to which parish each village belonged and indicated changes in parish
affiliation. The complete inventory Mecklenburg parish registers proved to be of
great help to genealogical researchers.
But Endler and Albrecht's 1936 parish register inventory had
errors and it left out some localities. The book was difficult for most
English-speaking genealogists to use because it was in German, written in the
old Gothic typeface. And so, in addition to indexing the localities in the 1819
census, I determined to enhance and correct the information in the 1936 book and
to make the information it contained more accessible to modern genealogical
researchers.
Much of the information in this book is based on information
from Mecklenburgs familiengeschichtliche Quellen. The information on
sources for genealogical research comes almost entirely from there. The locality
information from that source was carefully compared with Meyers Orts- und
Verkehrs- Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs (Meyer's Locality and Commerce
Dictionary of the German Empire) compiled by E. Uetrecht (Leipzig:
Bibliographisches Institut, 1912). It was further supplemented by information
gleaned from the 1819 census of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
This work has taken many years, and has been accomplished with
the help of several dedicated people who volunteered their time and tireless
efforts. These were Laurie Miller Christensen, Inge Bork, Miriam Hall, Shirley
Harmon, Ruth Pierce, and Nola Sala. It could not have been completed without
their help.
Daniel M. Schlyter
Family History Library
9 February 1989
