[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Radom Parish Records.... Several questions in understanding these entries.

[Jerry Frank]

Gene,

When our Parish List shows NKLR, we mean in microfilmed form.  In this case the Radom Lutheran records are listed in the Polish Archives database of records.  The Rawa Mazowieckie records are not listed there.

We have a personal report from the son of Pastor Hammermeister at Rawa that the books were destroyed when a German tank ran over the horse drawn wagon of the Pastor as he was fleeing from Rawa.  We would of course be excited to find that a copy was available somewhere but so far nothing has appeared.

The Archive that would hold Rawa records is in Lodz.  I am going to be in that Archive in May but do not expect to find anything for Rawa (but I will look).

If a village is recorded with a different district name, it may or may not be in the same parish.  Some parishes were small while others covered a very large area.  Best is to stick with the political boundary rather than with the parish boundary as you search for the villages.  When you find the village, you will have to determine which Parish it was in.

I forget the exact number but in Poland there was at least a dozen or more classifications for people of peasant class.  That is why you are seeing so many variations.  Each one has a slightly different context in terms of being a laborer only, whether or not you had some ownership status of the land, etc.  It is sometimes difficult to translate these into English terms so be cautious about how you interpret them.  Best to go back to the original Polish term and do some research to determine the full context of the word rather than just using a single word translation.

"Legal tutor" seems like an odd designation.  Again, you might want to go back to the original Polish term to search for the full context of what it implies.

Life span for women was often short because they often died in childbirth.  Many men however survived into their 60s and 70s.  You may have just hit an anomaly in your particular family.  You would have to do a full community study to determine how common it was.  I have one ancestor who died in his 90s c.1803 who had 5 wives and 24 children.  All the children predeceased him.

Yes, it was very common to move around in the district.  The person may have been working for the same landlord during those moves.


Jerry






----- Original Message -----
From: Gene Markiewicz <genemarkiewicz at aol.com>
Date: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 3:45 am
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Radom Parish Records.... Several questions in understanding these entries.
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org

>  
> 
> Hi, I am working my way through roughly 35 vital records I 
> received from the
> Radom Evangelical Augsberger Parish via the Radom Regional 
> Archives. The
> bulk of these records are from the 1840's through 1890 but some 
> are from
> before and some after.  I have had these records translated 
> so I am working
> with the English translation.  I have several 
> questions/observations for the
> group.
> 
>  
> 
> .         For the most 
> part, village names are provided with no additional
> information.  But, in a few cases, a village name is 
> provided with an added
> comment that the village named it is in a different 
> district.  My question
> whether I should  assume that a village name provided is 
> within the parish
> district unless in indicates otherwise?  This is 
> particularly important with
> birth locations in death entries and similar cases where a birth 
> place of an
> individual is provided (not a birth entry).
> 
> .         A couple of 
> village names were noted to be for the Rawa or Rawa
> Mazowiecka district. Similar to the Radom Parish, this parish is 
> listed as
> not having records that were micro-filmed by LDS.  So I 
> want to write to the
> appropriate regional archive (as I did for Radom).  Can 
> someone tell me
> whether this is likely to work and which archive location I 
> should try.
> 
> .         Does anyone 
> have any particular knowledge/expertise of this parish
> district?
> 
> .         Virtually even 
> male mentioned has an occupation or status
> indicated.  I have seen colonist, settler, tennant, 
> peasant,, laborer. for
> one woman it was servant and at my grandmothers wedding a man 
> attended who
> was identified as being her "legal tutor". both her parents were 
> dead and
> this "legal tutor" had the same last name as her mother's maiden 
> name.  Were
> these standard designations or just what the parish 
> pastor/administratorchose to use? I can assume which each 
> designation means but am curious as to
> whether these designations meant more than is obvious to me.
> 
> .         I am really 
> struck that so many of this family died in their 30's
> and early 40's.  Only a couple of them lived to 50.  
> Was this the norm for
> time & place?
> 
> .         My 
> grandfather's father (and family) seemed to have a different
> location noted every time they had a birth, death, marriage.. 
> Over a 30yr
> timeframe . But seemingly remaining in the same district within 
> a radius of
> 25 km or so.  He was mostly listed as a tenant.  Is my 
> assumption that  he
> most likely moved between farms as a laborer perhaps moving with 
> variouscrops a reasonable one. was this a common practice?
> 
> Thanks for your insights and your expertise
> 
>  
> 
> Eugene Markiewicz
> 
>  
> 
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