Schleswig-Holstein Census Records
by Gary Horlacher, Oct 2000

Film numbers for the census are listed below after this introductory information. Refer to the alphabetical list of parishes to see which county or estate a particular parish belonged to.

Earlier Census & other population sources

Earlier censuses were taken in Schleswig-Holstein in 1769 and 1803. The 1769 census was better preserved in the southern part of the territory than in the north. They list the head of house, his age, and statistics of the other people in the household, their age, and sex. Copies of this census are found in various archives in Denmark and Germany but not on microfilm at the Family History Library. At the provincial archive in Åbenrå are copies of the 1769 census of Haderslev Åbenrå, and Tønder cities; Åbenrå and Løgumkloster Counties; and Hørup parish on Als. In German archives 1769 census records are found for the following localities: Husum town (Town archive in Husum) and Garding Parish and Lindeved estate (Provincial Archives in Gottorp).

There are a few 1803 census films available for the following areas (the census for this year was not returned to the national archives in Copenhagen so some additional parts of the census may exist in local archives in Germany):

Cities:

Counties & Estates:

Other records that are similar to census and list various information can also be very helpful for genealogists. Most of these are just available in Denmark. Among these are the following:

Also some military rolls are found in estates. Gram & Nybøl estates have lists from 1761, 1768, and 1774-1782. Trøjborg 1746 and diverse years, also sea rolls from 1746, 1783, 1788, 1802, etc.

Later Census

German census records for this area 1867, 1871, 1875 and every year thereafter until 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1919 were taken however the originals were destroyed once the statistical information was sent to Berlin and published. Only a census of 1885 for Danish citizens in Schleswig-Holstein exists and census records from 1885-1919 for several of the cities. Those are only available in Germany or Denmark.

For the areas north of the border to Germany created in 1920, there are Danish census records starting in 1921 available through the Danish archives.

Using this guide

You will need to find out if your village or parish was part of a city, county, or estate district, and the name of the county or estate district. You can then use the following charts to figure out the film numbers for each of the available census records. An alphabetical listing of all of the parishes in Schleswig-Holstein listing the county it belonged to is being prepared and will be added to this guide when it is finished. In the meantime you can study a map or look up likely districts in the Family History Library catalog using the film number search to get a listing of the parishes in a particular district.

It is difficult working with this area because of the dual languages. Most towns have a German spelling and a Danish spelling. Some have more than one variation of German or Danish spellings. The towns to the north have become standardized as Danish, those to the south as German, and in these records Danish is perhaps used a little more. Where alternate names are known from the census records they are listed in parenthesis following the town name, however the first place name is not always Danish with German in parenthesis. Sometimes it is the opposite.

Another problem is indexing. In Danish the letters Æ, Ø, Å come at the end of the alphabet and in German the letters Ä, Ö, Ü come among the letters A, O, U. Also names starting with "C" are now listed with a "K". No standard way of handling these problems was followed, rather a combination of styles was used, so this information is to help you be aware of the possible problems.

A particular town may have some of its people listed in a county jurisdiction and others an the estate jurisdiction. The boundaries of some counties or districts have also changed through these years. The following table lists the jurisdictions by:

The duchy of Lauenburg is listed last.

The film numbers are listed in the columns under the year of the census. At the Family History Library they are generally written with two preceding zeros. At the National Archives in Denmark they are written with a preceding M.

Following are the films available for the 1835-1860 census records of Schleswig-Holstein:

Although the duchy of Lauenburg came under Danish jurisdiction in 1815/1816, it appears not to have been included in the census (at least those at the Family History Library) except for the years 1845 and 1855.

Cities

(other large towns are found under the name of the county such as the towns of Løgumkloster, Nordborg, etc.)

Counties (Amter) and Districts (Herred-Harde):

Marshland Districts (Koog, Køge) in several counties. (S=Schleswig, H=Holstein, L=Lübeck)

Estates

AG: Adelsgodser
G: Godser
KD: Kloster District

Other

Herzogtum Lauenburg 1845 #39300-39301

Cities:

Counties (Amt):

Estates:

Handicapped 1860 #39589