Data Collection Jewish Genealogy
Jewish households in the Neumark (1805)
Preliminary remarks
The authorities of Brandenburg started to document and control the Jewish population almost immediately after Jews were allowed to settle again in their territory. The first lists that we found so far go back to 1688 and include the names of Jews living in Berlin and Frankfurt/Oder.
Many of the documents created in the 17th and 18th century got lost but we can still find a considerable number of them in archives like the Brandenburg Main State Archive (Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv) and the Prussian Secret State Archives (Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz). Other useful sources of information are the collections of Selma Stern and Jacob Jacobson in the Leo Baeck Institute (New York).
TThis dataset is based on two types of lists kept in the Prussian Secret State Archives. They contain personal data from Jews who have been living in 31 localities of the Neumark in the year 1805.
Terms explained
The term “Schutzjude” (protected Jew) refers to the legal status a person of Jewish faith has been granted by a higher authority, like the ruler of a territory. We find the term used as well in a law issued by Frederick the Great in 1750 which distinguished between two categories of Schutzjuden: ordentliche und außerordentliche Schutzjuden ("ordinary" and "extraordinary" protected Jews).
These legal categories which granted different legal rights remained in place in Brandenburg until 1812, the year in which Jews living there were offered the opportunity to become Prussian citizens based on an edict issued on March 11, 1812
Using the term “Jewish household”, we move away from the usual approach and not only take into account the core family (parents and children), but also include servants as well as brothers and brothers-in-law.
About the database
Our database contains the names and ages of
- ordinary and extraordinary protected Jews and their wives
- children of ordinary protected Jews with special legal status ("angesetzte Kinder") and their wives
- employees of the Jewish community and their wives
In addition, the database includes information on the number of children this group of people had as well as on servants, brothers, and brothers-in-law and, furthermore, whether a protected Jew owned a house.
The lists of the Jewish families living in the Neumark also contain the names of wives and, in many cases, widows, information not available for the Kurmark. As a rule, wives are mentioned with only one name (first name or pet name). Their maiden names are almost always missing.
On the other hand, widows are recorded with their former names. In contrast to the original sources, which use several forms of presenting the names of widows, we have chosen the following standardised form for the database: Name(s) of widow, name(s) of widower [example: Merge Joseph, Witwe Noah Salomon]. Where deceased husbands are still listed, we have put a cross (†) after the name.
A major problem in compiling information about the individual households from various lists proved to be the inconsistent spelling of names, e.g., Wulff/Wolff, Liepmann/Liebmann, Hertz/Herz, Levi/Levy/Levin, Güttel/Gittel, Freude/Freide. We have included both variants in the database.
The often barely decipherable handwriting of Prussian officials also proved to be a major challenge. In these cases, lists from previous years were used as a supplement, although this did not always solve the problem.
In many cases the database also includes the names that a person had as a Prussian citizen after 1812 as far as we could tell. Unfortunately, the Neumarker Amtsblatt (1813) only contains the last name chosen by a new Jewish citizen, which often made it impossible to match old and new names of a person.
We used six different Jewish tables to compile the database:
- List of the Jewish families in localities of the Neumark - 1805 (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 138)
- List of the Jewish families in localities of the Neumark - 1805 (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 153)
- List of the Jewish families in localities of the Neumark - 1805 (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 174)
- List of the Jewish families in localities of the Neumark - 1804 (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 137)
- List of the Jewish families in localities of the Neumark - 1805 (I. HA Rep. 103, IV C Nr. 135)
- List of the houses of protected Jews ("Jewish houses") in localities of the Neumark – 1804 (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 139)
All lists mentioned above have already been digitised. Therefore, any user of this database can easily obtain information beyond what we have included.
Abbreviations
OS = Ordentlicher Schutzjude (ordinary protected Jew)
AS = Außerordentlicher Schutzjude (extraordinary protected Jew)
PB = Publique Bediente (employees of the Jewish Community)
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