[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] The newly availalbe birth records from Rozyszcze

[William Remus]

The newly availalbe birth records from Rozyszcze Parish in Volhynia 
are really quite good. These are important records tracking the people 
migrating both in 1833 and 1860's into Volhynia. The records run from 
1862 to 1899 and all are clearly written (film numbers 2380017 to 
2380023). They are in the order that the pastor traveled rather than 
by birth or baptism date but that is interesting since it clumps the 
records by village. In each year in the 1880's there were about 2000 
babies born in this parish so it is tedious looking though the 
records. Note that the St Petersburg Archive records on the web only 
go to 1885 so these new records also cover new ground.

Luckily, there is a microfilm (2380024) with three sets of indexes. 
This first covers the whole period (some in this set are quite light 
and hard to read), the second covers 1862 to 1881, and the third 
covers 1882 to 1899. The indexes first show all the A surnames in the 
order on the microfilms, then B surnames, etc. In most cases, the 
child's name is listed followed by the father's name and then the year 
and record number. Do note that unlike the online St Petersburg 
records, you cannot use these successfully without looking at the 
original record to find necessary details like the birth date 
(although year is provided), baptism date, mother's name, and village.

The records are in clear German script until 1891. Thereafter the 
records are in clear Cyrillic Russian although the child's Christian 
name and father's Christian and Surname are in parenthesis in German 
script. So dates need to be translated from Russian and also the 
mother's Christian and surname (this can be tricky). To help out, the 
index film (2380024) does show the indexes up to and including 1895. 
That is, the records are not indexed beyond 1895. But after 1895, you 
can still extract records by just reading though the records. 

Best Wishes on your Search
Bill