German Genealogical Research in Eastern Europe: Difference between revisions

The most significant sources of genealogical research in Russia and Poland are birth, marriage, and death records. Imperial Russia entrusted the keeping of such records to the churches, which recorded christenings, births, deaths, and burials. In Russia the Orthodox church was required to keep records by imperial decree in 1722; Roman Catholics were required in 1826, Muslims in 1828, Lutherans and other Protestants in 1832, and Jews in 1835. The decree required that a copy of the record be kept locally and a copy (transcript) be sent to the consistory office (called civil transcripts). Most of the German colonies had already been keeping records before the decree. However, these registers and transcripts were not always consistently maintained. Austria required civil transcripts of vital records starting in 1784. Catholics were responsible for recording people of other faiths until the 1820s. Some helpful books include:

Genealogical research in the German colonies in Russia has been greatly facilitated by the system of village coordinators. These are individuals who coordinate the gathering of information and compiling databases about the inhabitants of specific villages. You are encouraged to share your family information with the village coordinator for the village your ancestors came from. You may also benefit from information already submitted by others. To learn more, see [[Germans from Russia Archives and Libraries#Village Coordinators|Village Coordinators]].

 

Some German emigrants from Russia and Poland brought their records with them when they emigrated. For more information, see [[Germans from Russia Emigration and Immigration#Other_Records|Other Records]].<ref>Schlyter, Daniel M. "German Genealogical Research in Polish and Russian Areas". 1999. Copy in possession of Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.</ref>

 

=== How to Access the Records ===

Some church and civil registration records are available at the [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/search Family History Library]. The FHL has microfilm copies of church records and their civil transcripts from German communities in all areas of Poland. Records have also been acquired from areas in former Galicia, Austria, and what is now Poland and Ukraine. Privacy restrictions have prevented the microfilming of records more recent than the late 1800s. Most of the church records in the [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/search FamilySearch Catalog] have been digitized and are available on the website. The records can be found by searching for:

POLAND, [PROVINCE], [TOWN]. The records will be under the "Church records" heading. Some civil registration records from the Prussia area, beginning in 1874, are available on the [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/search FamilySearch Catalog], but they usually go no later than 1880. The records can be found by searching for POLAND, [PROVINCE], [TOWN]. The records will be under the "Civil registration" heading. The FHL has also acquired many church records from archives in Russia (including St. Petersburg) and Ukraine. Additionally, there are a few records from Bessarabia and Volhynia in the [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/search FamilySearch Catalog]. Most have been digitized and are available online. If the records needed have no been microfilmed yet, information can still be obtained through writing to, visiting, or hiring a researcher to visit the record repositories in Poland and Russia.

 

The original church records are mainly kept in local parish offices or in church archives. For Roman Catholic records, most records less than 100 years old are usually kept at the local parish. Older records are usually kept at the diocese. However, while some dioceses have gathered all pre-1900 church records, some have only gathered all pre-1800 records. Some of the records kept at the diocese have been microfilmed and are available at the [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/search Family History Library]. Additionally, records from one parish may have been consolidated with another one.Original Catholic parish registers can often be accessed by writing directly to the priest of the local Catholic parish. These letters should be in their native language. For Protestant records, parish registers can be found in multiple places because most Protestant churches no longer function. These records may be located: at a local civil registration office, in a state archive, at an existing Protestant parish, in a privately maintained Protestant church archive, carried away and deposited in an archive in Germany, misplaced and forgotten in some obscure storage place, or destroyed.<ref>Schlyter, Daniel M. "German Genealogical Research in Polish and Russian Areas". 1999. Copy in possession of Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.</ref>