| JewishGen Danzig/Gdańsk Research Division Project: |
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Status: Some items from FHL microfilm 1184407 and FHL 1184408/1 (deaths) years 1925-1927 and 1936-1940 have been indexed and are now online at JewishGen's Germany and Poland Databases (for details, see the introduction). Other items from 1184407, other years from 1184408, and all items from 1184409 and 1184410 need additional proofreading before they can go online. Volunteers Needed: Proofread by comparing JPEG images of original Danzig records with transcriptions in Excel spreadsheets and correcting any errors in the spreadsheets. You will need be able to read at least one of Suetterlin-style German handwriting, Hebrew print, or Hebrew cursive. You must be comfortable editing an existing Excel spreadsheet and know how to zoom in and out of JPEG images. If you want to volunteer, please send an email to the Project Coordinator containing the following information: Have you ever worked on a project to index Jewish records? If so, which? How well can you read Suetterlin-style German handwriting? How well can you read Hebrew print? How well can you read Hebrew cursive? There is no minimum commitment of time, nor any deadline. You can work at your own pace. All volunteers will need to submit a JewishGen Volunteer Agreement in order to participate in this project. Please contact the Project Coordinator before doing this, though. Description: Microfilm Contents Indexing will begin with FHL microfilms 1184407, 1184408, 1184409, 1184410. The approximate total number of Danzig records/entries on these microfilms is 9232, ranging in date from at least 1752 until 1940! They contain many instances of surnames SIG members are researching. The descriptions of their contents here and here on www.familysearch.org are not completely accurate, and a closer examination reveals the following contents. 1184407: birth records 1905-1936; birth records for Weinberg 1839-1847; marriage records for Weinberg 1837-1845, often with places of origin; burial records for Weinberg 1847-1883; burial records from at least 1765 to 1883 1184408: death and burial records 1889-1940, often with father's name, and, from 1934, place and date of birth 1184409: burial records for Altschottland and unified Danzig 1848-1920, cross-referenced to burial plot purchase records for Altschottland 1848-1883, which are also indexed alphabetically; burial records 1883-1929, cross-referenced to burial plot purchase records 1883-1900, which are also indexed alphabetically 1184410: typed transcription of the 1814 surname adoption list already online, with essay about surname adoption from 1936; handwritten citizenship? list (missing first two pages, covering surnames beginning with "A") sharing much in common with the 1814 surname adoption list, but differing in substantive ways; burial records from at least 1752 until at least 1871 The ranges of dates are significantly larger, in some cases, than those indicated in the online FHL catalog. There seem to be two reasons for this: some entries have dates written only in Hebrew, which the FHL seems to have ignored, and these are generally the earliest; and some of the records of burials in family plots list burials over many decades, while the FHL seems to have used only the earliest burial dates. Many of the records associated with burials (there are several different formats for burial records) identify the locations of graves according to section and grave number (and some even by physical dimensions in feet). There is so much of this information that it might be possible to reconstruct maps of the two cemeteries, especially if aided by what (little) survives from them. In some cases, cross-referencing records by grave location will also be genealogically useful. The burial plot purchase records on microfilm 1184409 often include not only the name of the purchaser and the location of the plot, but also the names of the people intended to be buried in the plots, and/or their relationships to the purchaser. This information can be very useful genealogically when combined with the burial records on this microfilm, which indicate the names and dates of the people actually buried in these plots (but, often, not their relationships to the purchaser). The precise meaning of the burial records on microfilm 1184410 is not clear. Because they are arranged primarily alphabetically by given name and grouped by section number, and because of the consistency of the handwriting over many decades of burial dates, perhaps they were not made contemporaneously with the burials, but are either an inventory of burials, with the information having been read from gravestones (which might indicate why some is only in German, some only in Hebrew, some lacking dates — perhaps illegible), or an indexing of other burial records. The citizenship? list on microfilm 1184410 contains many names not on the surname adoption list (especially people who are not heads of households), a numbering possibly suggesting location of residency, and some information that seems to have been accidentally dropped by the compilers of the 1817 printing of the surname adoption list (seemingly, due to the similarity in appearance of ditto marks " and spacers ..). Many of the records, especially those from after the First World War, but also some of the earliest, indicate places of origin far away from Danzig. There are probably many researchers whose relatives are listed in these records, while they are not aware of any connection to Danzig or even the surroundings. Destination of the Data The indices created by this project are being added to the Danzig Database included in JewishGen's Germany and Poland Databases, freely available to all, and copies will be made available to JRI-Poland. Burial records will be submitted to the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry. Relation to Other Danzig Records This material is separate from and different than what is in the Archives of the Jewish Community of Danzig at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP), Jerusalem, which is the subject of another project. The process involved in indexing is also different — for the CAHJP material, fundraising is necessary to purchase microfilm and xerox copies, and for digitization of the microfilms. Combining these and other (smaller) sources will provide an expansive and in-depth genealogical picture of the Danzig Jewish community. Depending on your particular interests (especially, which of the five "precursor" communities), you might find information in only some or in all of the sources. Contact: Logan Kleinwaks, JewishGen Research Director for Danzig/Gdańsk |