Germany, Prussia, Brandenburg and Posen, Church Book Duplicates, 1700-1875

What is in This Collection?

This collection includes images and indexes of births, marriages, and deaths from state copies of some parish registers (Kirchenbuchduplikate) from the provinces of Brandenburg and Posen, Germany. Original records are located in the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, Potsdam, Germany. German states successively began creating church book duplicates from 1792 to 1876. This collection of church records covers the years 1794–1874 and are good sources to find information of ancestors before the institution of civil registration in 1876.

A parish is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction made up of many villages and hamlets, with one of the villages designated as the main parish. This set of church book duplicates do not usually include records from all of the villages within a parish, but only records from one village, or from a few of the villages within the parish. In larger cities, where there was more than one church, each church is listed separately. Outside of Prussia, the clergy were required to record the vital events (births, marriages and deaths) of people living within their jurisdiction regardless of their religion. For example, Catholic or Jewish people living in an area that did not have a Catholic church or Jewish synagogue were often recorded in the Lutheran records. The reverse was also true in Catholic areas, where Lutherans and Jews were recorded in Catholic records. However, in Prussia--including Brandenburg and, from 1793 onward, Posen--this was not the common practice. Some Posen church books have entries for Jews during the period 1807-1814, i.e., the Napoleonic occupation.

German church book duplicates, like the originals, are the most reliable and accurate family history source until 1876 when civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in all of Germany. Church book duplicates may differ slightly from the originals because of transcription variations. They are often more legible than the originals. Entries are usually arranged in chronological order in a column format. The baptisms, marriages and deaths for one year are grouped together before the baptisms, marriages and deaths for the next year.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

For Help Reading These Records

These records are written in German and Polish. For help reading them see:

• Germany Language and Languages
• German Word List
• Germany Handwriting
• Poland Language and Languages
• Polish Word List

To Browse This Collection

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The information in these records usually include the following:

Collection Content

For more information about these records see Germany, Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records.

Sample Images

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  1869 Marriage Entry

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  1868 Death Entry

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  1869 Baptismal Entry