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

[Karl Krueger]

Hi Gene,
I'll try to answer a few of your questions below in red.



________________________________
 From: Gene Markiewicz <genemarkiewicz at aol.com>
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org 
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 5:42 AM
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Radom Parish Records.... Several questions in understanding these entries.
 


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).
# I assume you are not finding other districts located for birth records - those
are rare and mean the family moved to Radom after the birth. For deaths or marriages
the person most likely was born elsewhere if a different district is given.
Districts (like Warsaw and Rawa) can cover a very wide region so it can
be difficult to accurately find some of the real towns.

.         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.
# I have the same problem. No records from Rawa are known to exist. They
were likely destroyed at the end of WW II.


.         Does anyone have any particular knowledge/expertise of this parish
district?
# If you are looking for records earlier than 1830 you might find them in the
nearest Catholic church to the town of your interest. I had great success with 
this NE of Lodz and just NW of Brzeziny (considered with Rawa at the time).
Check the FHL to find Catholic churches.

.         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/administrator
chose to use? I can assume which each designation means but am curious as to
whether these designations meant more than is obvious to me.
# My bet is the tutor is a close relative, likely her paternal uncle. Maybe it 
should be translated as guardian.

.         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?
# It's not uncommon but they did live to the 60s and 70s and some even more.
It's a little unusual if most of yours are dying by the 40s.

.         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 various
crops a reasonable one. was this a common practice?
# If he was a tenant then he apparently didn't own land so he might have gone
where there was work.

Thanks for your insights and your expertise



Eugene Markiewicz



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