[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Phrase - could not read or write

[Jerry Frank]

The phrase, "could not read or write" with respect to witnesses at events 
often appears on records from Poland.  Here Karl specifically references 
someone who "could" read and write.

It should be noted that most of our 19th century German ancestors in Poland 
would have had at least rudimentary education allowing them to read and 
write.  However, this was as taught in their German church schools.  The 
implication of this phrase, therefore, is that the person usually "could 
not read or write Polish" (or Russian as the case may be), the language of 
the document they were asked to legally sign.  Many of these same people 
could communicate in Polish, Russian, and/or Yiddish as required to do 
business at market but they would not have the ability to read or write 
those languages.





At 02:28 PM 03/02/2005, Karl Krueger wrote:
>I have several wedding records (from disparate families) from Lublin in 
>the early 1870s where one guy is serving as a witness,  clearly not 
>related or friends to the any of the married couples.  The profession of 
>this guy was a hat-maker. They must have been using him as a witness for 
>some special reason - maybe because he could read and write.




Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca