Germany, Prussia, Westphalia, Minden, Miscellaneous Collections from the Municipal Archives, 1574-1912

What is in This Collection?

This collection of records from the city of Minden includes index & images of citizenship rolls and naturalization for the years 1574 to 1902, population registers for the years 1574-1902, and census records that enumerated citizens for the years 1574-1902.

This collection of records from the city of Minden includes index & images of citizenship rolls, population registers, and census records that enumerated citizens over three centuries, 1574-1902. Original records are located in the Kommunalarchiv in Minden. The information is handwritten horizontally through both pages of columns filling in the information as in a ledger type format. These records are written in German.

To keep a record of their population, household heads were called to assemble at the local civil office, almost yearly, to provide their personal information, which was counted as a basic unit. This listing is called “volkszahlung”, local population census. They also kept a similar register listing all the citizens that moved away to other localities. This register was called “abmeldungen”, relocation list of their citizens or cancellation list from the citizenship roll of that locality. These procedures were not enforced, but head of households were admonished to do so. Therefore, these records may not cover the entire population.

The census was taken to assess military and taxation capacity, as well as for religious, occupational, and language background. This census collection is a reliable source of information for genealogical purposes; however, it is dependent upon the knowledge of the informant and the way it was written by the civil officer.

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

Reading These Records

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

• German Language and Languages
• German Genealogical Word List
• German Handwriting Samples
• FamilySearch Learning Center videos:
  • German Paleography Seminar

To Browse This Collection

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  Census Headers

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  1799 Census

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  1648 Citizenship Acceptance