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Population Coverage: In the former Russian territory, civil transcripts recorded about 95% of the population. | Population Coverage: In the former Russian territory, civil transcripts recorded about 95% of the population. | ||
Reliability: Very good.<ref name="profile"/> | |||
===Civil Transcripts of Church Records in the former Prussian Territories<br>[''Kirchenbuchduplikate'']=== | |||
Research Use: Prussian civil transcripts are a primary source for birth, marriage, and death information and lineage-linking data. They are particularly valuable since so many of the original church records have been lost or destroyed in this area of Poland. | |||
Record Type: Transcripts of birth, marriage, and death records prepared by church clergy. Prussia gained a sizeable portion of Poland in the Polish partitions until the settlement of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 reduced Prussia’s share of Poland. Church registration of births, marriages, and deaths was mandatory by Prussian law from the time of the partitions. From 1794 church records were considered as both public and legal documents. Clergy were required to make exact records of births, marriages, and deaths. For civil purposes the Prussian government required transcripts [duplicates] of the church record which were to be sent to local courts. In 1808 the practice was reinforced and expanded. In accordance with this law, Mennonites, Jews, and others who did not keep christening registers had their births, deaths, and marriages recorded by the Lutheran minister. These records were kept in German, Latin, and sometimes Polish. The practice of civil transcripts was replaced by actual civil registration in 1874. | |||
Time Period: 1794 to 1874. | |||
Contents: Birth records: child’s given name; date and place of birth; father’s name, occupation and residence; mother’s maiden name; names of godparents. Marriage records: marriage date and place; names, ages, and residences of bride and groom; parents of bride and groom; sometimes also birth places of bride and groom; names of witnesses. Death records: name of deceased, date and place of death and burial, age at death, cause of death; often includes names of parents, spouse, and surviving children. | |||
Location: Prussian civil transcripts are in state provincial archives. Recent records of less than 100 years are often in local vital records offices [''Urzd Stanu Cywilnego'']. Some records are in state archives in the Federal Republic of Germany. | |||
Population Coverage: In the former Prussian area, civil transcripts cover 70 to 80% of the population, but minority religions, especially Jews, were likely to be less thoroughly registered. | |||
Reliability: Very good.<ref name="profile"/> | Reliability: Very good.<ref name="profile"/> | ||