[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Polish Marriage Records

[Worth Anderson]

Jerry is right that the Napoleonic format required a statement of whether there was a pre-nuptial agreement (and it bears noting that in France and colonial Canada such agreements seem not to have been uncommon).

I have never seen a record for German Lutheran peasants living in agricultural "holendry" villages that said there was such an agreement, but they did occur where there was significant property, such as marriages between Polish nobles or wealthy ethnic German bourgeoisie living in towns.

If one ever does run across a record indicating there was a pre-marital agreement, it could be located in the notary records located in the relevant Polish regional archives.

Worth

P.S.  This is another indicator of why it is good to read the entire marriage record.  If the record lists banns as having been read in two different places, it means either the bride or groom was from a different parish, and the summary of who signed (or was incapable of signing) often identifies family relationships to the witnesses that are not stated elsewhere in the document.
--- On Tue, 12/16/08, Jerry Frank <FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca> wrote:

> From: Jerry Frank <FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca>
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Polish Marriage Records
> To: Dhwunsch at aol.com
> Cc: farose at gmail.com, ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
> Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 12:52 PM
> I agree that it has to do with a written contract but, since
> divorce in those years was very uncommon, I think it has
> more to do with practices of dowry that existed in certain
> locations and cultures.  It may have had little implication
> to the traditions and practices of German Lutherans but the
> phrase had to be included per the standard Napoleonic
> format.  
> 
> Not saying they don't exist but I have never seen a
> record where it states that such a contract did exist.  For
> that reason I suspect that such contracts were officially
> discouraged.  
> 
> Jerry
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dhwunsch at aol.com
> Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 10:36 am
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Polish Marriage Records
> To: farose at gmail.com, ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
> 
> > I think it means they did not have a pre-nuptial
> like  
> > what's mine is mine 
> > and your is yours if they divorce just like it is 
> today. 
> > Diane
> >  
> >  
> > In a message dated 12/16/2008 10:54:53 A.M. Central
> Standard 
> > Time,  
> > farose at gmail.com writes:
> > 
> > I've  come across an interesting
> "comment" in Polish 
> > marriage records, and
> > I'm  wondering what it means. It says that the
> couple "did 
> > not make  any
> > pre-marital agreement between them".
> > 
> > I'm wondering if that is a  euphemism for
> "not having 
> > carnal knowledge", to
> > use another euphemism. And  if it was, what about
> women who 
> > were obviously
> > pregnant when they married?  I'm told that it
> didn't appear 
> > to be an issue,
> > as long as they married  before the child was born.
> > 
> > Of course, it could mean something entirely 
> different.
> > Anyone  know?
> > 
> > Rose-Marie
> > 
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