Tragheimerweide Mennonite Church Records: 1781 -1862

Transliterated by Esther Patkau
Edited by Ernest H. Baergen

Introduction

The records of the Tragheimerweide Mennonite Church in Prussia 1781 -1862 have been transliterated from Gothic Script to Latin Script and then converted to a Brother's Keeper 6 (BK6) file for distribution in gedcom. The hard copy of the Latin Script copy which can be electronically accessed from various online directories has been deposited in the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan Archives. The page numbers of the original Gothic Script records to which references are made in the BK6 gedcom are in black print and the reorganized for online-access document's page numbers are in red italics.

In the process of developing the BK6 file, numerous changes were made to the copy of the records which had been transliterated from the hand written Gothic script by Esther Patkau. The changes were made as a result of:
  a) deductions from other family data; and
  b) consulting one or more of the following:
    i) the transliteration done by a group at Bethel College, North Newton, KS;
    ii) the pages on the web site produced by John Thiessen of the Mennonite Historical Library and Archives at Bethel College; and
    iii) a photocopy of the LDS micro-films.

All changes and additions to Esther Patkau’s transliteration are printed in red italics.

The original records contained various spellings of given names, surnames and place names. In the BK6 file, some of the variations of surnames and place names were standardized. In this document, however, all names remain as close as possible to those recorded in the original. The BK6 program utilizes a reference number which standardizes all given and surnames.

The original records most often stated the age at death in years, months and days. When the age at death was stated but the date of birth was not known, it was calculated from the age given at the time of death and entered as an Abt date.

Where neither the date of birth nor the age at death were given, but the year of baptism was known, the Abt date of birth was calculated by subtracting 16 from the year of baptism. A sampling of the known ages at baptism indicated that the average age of the baptismal candidates in those days was about 16 years.

It must be noted here that some events occurred at locations other than those listed. In the case of births prior to 1792 listed on pages 7 to 32, the locations may be the location of residence at the time that the Tragheimerweide churches began to compile their records and that the person may actually have been born in another village.

The baptism records pose another question. For each year the names of those baptized are listed in the records along with the names of their fathers plus a location which was different for each of them, except where siblings were baptized on the same day. They were all baptized on one day each year by the same Aeltester (Bishop or Elder). Since it would have been impossible for that Aeltester to visit all the different locations in one day, it must be assumed that the baptismal candidates congregated with the Aeltester in one of the churches for the baptism ceremony. The listed locations, therefore, must be taken to be the location of the person’s residence at the time of baptism.

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Page created 12 September 2006; html by Richard D. Thiessen


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