Germans from Russia Church Records: Difference between revisions

'''     '''Smolensk became the home of many German officers, bureaucrats, merchants, craftsmen and just before WWI many farmers.  They founded a church in 1857. In the year 1862 the parish of Smolensk had 403 parishioners. In 1941 there were three volumes of church records still in existence:  

   All registers, except the birth registers were then in good repair. Entries were made in German until 1891, from 1892 to 1918 the Russian language was used.  

    The author, Roland Seeberg - Elverfeldt, made a list of all marriage entries between 1834 and 1879, which he did in 1941. Mr. Seeberg-Elverfeldt remarks that not all marriages were performed in Smolensk but as far away as Moscow and St. Petersburg.  

     A complete listing of entries between 1870 and 1918 was not feasible in the author's opinion because the congregation was no longer purely Germanic (volksdeutsch). He points out, though, that the death registers are of great worth because the entries reveal a place of origin of the deceased.

     Among the FHL films of the St. Petersburg Lutheran Consistory, of which the Smolensk Lutheran Parish was a part, records for seven years are  totally missing.  The article by the above author provides information of marriages for six of these seven years. Frequently, Mr. Seeberg-Elversfeldt lists a marriage or two more than the films show.

     There are two different formats of marriage records on the film. Firstly, the main marriage records contain first and last names, civil standing, occupation, origins and names of fathers of bride and groom. Secondly, there are also lists giving only the first and last names of those getting married and reference numbers to the main marriage registers which do not exist on films after 1853. Mr. Seeberg-Elverfeldt's article gives the complete information of the main registers from 1834-1870, frequently augmented with information from birth and death records.

     The article "Evangelisch-Lutherische Trauungen in Smolensk 1834-1870" appeared in ''Archiv für Sippenforschung'', Jahrgang 19, Heft 5 (1942), starting with page 97. The periodical can be retrieved through FamilySearch, Family History Library catalog, call number 943 B2as.

Three important repositories are: • Mennonite Heritage Centre    600 Shaflesburg Rd    Winnipeg, Manitoba R3P 0M4    CANADA In 1966 they filmed all the Mennonite records in Odessa for the southern Russian Empire, including revision lists. • Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies in Canada    169 Riverton Ave    Winnipeg, Manitoba R2L 2E5    CANADA • Mennonite Library and Archives    Information and Research Center    Box 366    North Newton, KS 67117    USA The follow book provides background information: Unruh, Benjamin Heinrich. ''Die niederlandisch-niederdeutschen Hintergrunde der mennonitischen Ostwanderungen im 16., 17., und 19. Jahrhundert'' (The Netherlands-Low German Background of the Mennonite Migration to the East in the 16th, 18th and 19th Centuries). Karlsruhe: Unruh, 1955. Text in German. A history on the Mennonite movement into Russia; provides lists of families according to the town in Russia where they settled and time period, including in many cases birthplaces in Germany or Poland.