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Despite the many variations in type, structure, and appearance of Jewish civil records in southern Germany, they also share many common features. Civil records from Pforzheim to Pfersee, in fact from Bremen to Bukowina, are both very similar and also quite different. Throughout the Middle Ages, European Jews enjoyed almost autonomous family law, set by Jewish tradition rather than the state. One paragraph is devoted to each individual specific vital event.
Prior to about 1830, records were written with quill pens. While they had a somewhat idiosyncratic ink flow, quills made it easy to identify the direction of the stroke. Pointed steel nibs from England were introduced in 1830, which accentuated the spiky nature of the Gothic Current. In 1907, the broadheaded nib was invented, again giving the script a more prominent stroke direction.
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Funeral homes curate a final ceremony that provides space for guests to begin the journey through grief together. This expertise contributes to a meaningful funeral service that gives mourners a chance to say their last farewells. The funeral service is an important point of closure for those who have suffered a recent loss, often marking just the beginning of collective mourning. It is a time to share memories, receive condolences and say goodbye.
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Baden-Wuerttemberg and some Bavarian records are accessible online. Most can be found in the respective state and district archives. Many records are also available at CAHJP and from the Family History Library.25 The detailed date span for Jewish civil records varies from community to community and often even by life event. Learning to read Gothic Current script takes a few days practice using easily available aids, but is well worth the effort. Nineteenth-century civil records for the Jews in Southern Germany are an invaluable source of information for the serious Jewish genealogist.
Over the years, Gothic script evolved somewhat differently in different regions. Consequently, depending on the region and the scribe, the same character may appear totally different. A personalized service touches families and friends and celebrates a life well lived. We are always inspired by the beautiful examples we have seen and will be happy to share some of them with you. Although the Stuttgart archive attributes this record to Sulzburg , the entries do not correspond to the civil register copy maintained by the Sulzburg pastor.
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With some exceptions, Jewish records tend to follow the outline generally prescribed for the Gentile records. Most Jewish genealogists researching their European ancestry eventually confront 19th-century civil records, but the variety of types and forms of such documents may be confusing. In addition, Jewish civil records vary somewhat from those of their Gentile neighbors. To make sense of the content of Jewish civil records, researchers need to understand the structure, history, legal basis, and fate of the records. This article focuses on Jewish records from Bavaria and Wuerttemberg, but much of its content applies also to other areas in Germany and Austria. These laws applied initially not only to Austria proper but also to Bavaria, Bohemia, Galicia, Moravia, and other parts of the Hapsburg Empire.
Figure 3, shown on the next page, is an example of a ledger record. The loss of a loved one can leave you with a lot of unanswered questions, feelings of stress and anxiety and grief that makes events difficult to handle. The experienced funeral directors at Bunch-Singleton Funeral Home will guide you through the aspects of the funeral service with compassion, dignity and respect. Our staff of dedicated professionals is available to assist you in making funeral service arrangements.
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This article is adapted from a presentation at the IAJGS conference in Los Angeles, July 2010—Ed. Needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding. FSN Funeral Homes is your complete resource to funeral planning.
From casket choices to funeral flowers, the funeral directors at Bunch-Singleton Funeral Home provide individualized funeral services designed to meet the needs of each family. In addition to the original registers kept by the rabbis, a second copy, kept by the local pastor of the dominant local church, commonly existed. These were copied, usually once a year, from the rabbi’s original. Many of the second copies kept by pastors still exist. Frequently, the clergy possessed superior penmanship, at least during the first half of the century.
Sometimes a pastor would alter a Jewish-sounding given name to a more German form in his copy. When issued, certificates usually were additional to register entries. Birth, marriage, and death registers generally followed the same style within a given community or region.
These lists show the old, patronymic name in one column and the new civil name in the second column. Name adoption lists from Baden were collected by the genealogist and historian Berthold Rosenthal and now are housed at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. Name adoption lists are being transcribed by Wolfgang Fritsche and are available on the Internet at www.a-h-b.de/ AHB/links_e.htm. Extant Jewish civil records typically cover the period 1780 to 1876. After 1876, civil records were no longer kept separately by religion but became the responsibility of the state authorities. Depending on the jurisdiction, some headings were compulsory, while others were optional.
Perhaps Emperor Joseph II should be thanked for some of the growth of the Jewish population, and the economic and academic success of 19th-century European Jewry. Unfortunately, not all public records can be categorized clearly, and not all are easily legible. At the beginning of the 19th century especially, some rabbis were only partially literate in German. Some dates are given in Gregorian form, others are written in Hebrew letters, and some appear as the name of the Torah portion recited on the Sabbath following the event recorded. In contrast to records in journal style, many jurisdictions preferred or prescribed that civil records be kept in ledger style.
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