Lutheran Records in West Prussia
NOTE: If you find films for the Lutheran Church in Poland that are not listed here or if you find any errors in the listing, please let us know by contacting us at databases@sggee.org
Evangelical (Lutheran) Church Parish Records in West Prussia
West Prussia is a region of former Germany, now part of Poland. Significant numbers of Germans migrated from this region into Russian Poland and Volhynia. As a region adjacent to the primary focus areas of Russian Poland and Volhynia, SGGEE has not yet put great effort into general research of this area. As material becomes available, it will be included in the list below. For consistency with other SGGEE listings, the following codes will help to note the source of the data.
1. Poland, as used here, and until we discover a better definition, will, in part, be generally the area shown on a map by A. Breyer dated 1938 titled “Karte Der Deutschen Siedlungen in Mittelpolen” (= Map of German Colonies in Middle Poland). That map lists the Evangelical (or Lutheran) parishes and the date of establishment and are noted in the list that follows with a [1]. The list of parishes from that map has been supplemented from the following sources.
2. A second source of parish names is “Verzeichnis der Gemeinden und Pastoren der Evangelisch-Augsburgischen Kirche in Polen, Jahr 1910” (=List of Parishes and Pastors of the Evangelical Church in Poland in the year 1910) and are noted in the list that follows with a [2].
3. A third source of parishes is a portion of a map entitled “Die evang.-Luth. Gemeinden in Mittelpolen- 1939” (=The Evangelical Lutheran Parishes in Middle Poland-1939) and are noted in the list that follows with a [3].
4. A fourth source for the list which follows is from the LDS Church Family History Library (FHL) Catalog, and the items found are noted with a [4].
5. A fifth source for the list which follows is a map entitled "Die Gemeinden der Evangelisch-Augsburgischen Kirche in Polen am 1.9.1939" The Evangelical Lutheran Parishes in Poland on September 1, 1939) and are noted in the list that follows with a [5].
Family History Library filming generally ends with about the 1880s records, because the remaining records were not yet 100 years old at the time of filming. .
Handwritten records were kept for all births, marriages and deaths that were reported to the Lutheran Church. If an event occurred before the establishment of a Lutheran parish, the record is most likely in a nearby parish that was already established before the time of the event. In some cases, even though the event was for a person of the Evangelical (or Lutheran) faith, the event may be recorded in the Catholic Church records for that area.
Notes for the list that follows:
1. The year of establishment column gives the established year of that parish OR the earliest year available on microfilm. If there is no first date, it is unknown at this time.
2. Click on the parish below to view the listing of films for that parish. If the field under Status has a name shown, that individual is translating at least the indices for the parish. As soon as we have copyright release, we will post a database of these translations in the members area of our web site.
3. No attempt has been made to correlate the parishes listed below to those of present-day Poland. This is partly due to the fact that Poland again changed all province names in 1998. It is not known whether the boundaries of East and West Prussia noted below are the same as those shown on the Breyer map.
4. NKLR= No known Lutheran Records
5. Note that some of the parish films include as many of three different copies of the same record. It is believed that where these multiple copies exist, that the FHL filmed actually found the original record and one or more hand written copies as produced by the parish clergy.
| Parish | Province | Year Established | Status |
| Alt-Kortnit (see Alt Lobitz/Lowicz Walecki) [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1840?) | |
| Alt-Lobitz/ Lowicz Walecki (includes Alt Kortnit) [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1840?) | |
| Bromberg / Bydgoszcz [5] | Pomerellen | ??(1773) | |
| Bydgoszcz / Bromberg [5] | Pomerellen | ??(1773) | |
| Friedheim / Miasteczko Krajenskie [4] | Posen | ??(1795?) | |
| Gross Klonia/ Wielka Klonia [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1874?) | |
| Gross Lunau/ Wielkie Lunawy [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1845?) | |
| Gross Neudorf/ Nowawies Wielka [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1861?) | |
| Lowicz Walecki/ Alt Lobitz (includes Alt Kortnit) [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1840?) | |
| Miasteczko Krajenskie / Friedheim [4] | Posen | ??(1795?) | |
| Nowawies Wielka / Gross Neudorf [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1861?) | |
| Villisass/ Wieldzadz [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1889) | |
| Wieldzadz/ Villisass [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1889) | |
| Wielka Klonia/ Gross Klonia [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1874?) | |
| Wielkie Lunawy/ Gross Lunau [4] | W. Prussia | ??(1845?) |