[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Konin

[AlbertMuth at aol.com]

Hi Wilma,

Before the early 1840's, records for the greater Konin area could be in
the Konin Lutheran records themselves.  And, as Rose says, the oldest
Lutheran parish in the area (Wladyslawow) also records some events for
the people living this area form 1776 on.

Weird things happen EVERYWHERE in Russian Poland before the 1840's.
In areas closest to Lutheran parishes, people went there to record their
events; further out, they continued to record events in Catholic parish.
This
had nothing to do with their professed religion--it was simply more
convenient
or expedient to truck on over to the parish church down the street or in the
next village to do the job.

Do you have an exact village?  Konin, perhaps?  Before 1800, I find it far
more likely that events for Germans would be recorded more conveniently
in local Catholic parishes.  PRADZIAD records the holdings of Polish
civil registration (thanks, Gerhard, for reminding readers of the URL--the
archive holdings are greater than what LDS has filmed), and in the Konin
region, records are perhaps 99% filmed.

Before 1808, though, we are talking about the original Catholic church
records (in Latin), which may or may not have been filmed in the pertinent
diocesan archives.  In the LDS catalog, they do have deaths 1800-1808
of the original church records, BUT--in the notes of the catalog record, it
clearly states "Mikrofilm zrobiony z rekopissw w Archiwum Panstwowe
w Poznaniu", meaning that they were in the State Archives at Poznan.
Stanislaw Litak's "The Latin Church in the Polish Commonwealth in 1772"
shows a Catholic parish in Konin in 1772, so my guess is that, somewhere,
there are original catholic records.  Happy hunting.

Al

P.S.  Great answer, Dick!