Data Collection Jewish Genealogy



Marriages in the Jewish community of Freienwalde in the year 1812-1874


A few months after the emancipation law of 11 March 1812 came into force, the Prussian statesman Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg ordered that „Every Jew, who is a Prussian citizen, should report births, marriages, divorces and deaths in his family within 24 hours to the police authorities of a towns or within 3 days to the district administrator of a rural district.“

In the following decades, the information recorded in official registers of Prussian Jews played a role comparable to that of church registers for Christians in terms of recording births, marriages and deaths. The separate recording of civil status changes for Christians and Jews ended in Prussia more than 60 years later on February 24th, 1874 with the „Law on the recording of civil status and the form of marriage“.

A complete set of emtries into the official marriage registers of the Jewish inhabitants of Freienwalde an der Oder is not available. They only exist for the years 1847 to 1874. The missing information can be found in internal records of the local Jewish community, which cover the period 1813 to 1855, as well as a population table which includes marriages from 1813 to 1840.

The official marriage registers contain information on all Jews who married in Freienwalde, as well as on those living in Freienwalde who got married somewhere else. In the latter case, the registration at the court in Freienwalde took place retrospectively, with reference being made to the other place of marriage and the register number in their records.

Our database contains the following information::

  • Groom's first and last name
  • Groom's age
  • Groom's occupation
  • Bride's first and last name
  • Bride's age
  • Wedding date
  • Groom's parents first and last names
  • Bride's parents first and last names

Please note:
In some cases, names could not be clearly identified due to illegible handwriting or the poor condition of the document. Deceased parents and parents-in-law where labelled with a (†)


Sources: