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Marriage Records

Links to Baptism Records/ Death Records/ Family Books/ Marriage Vocabulary

German Marriage records are arguably the most important vital records to find and utilize. Not only do they link two families and their respective generations, but marriage records make it easier to determine if you've found the correct baptismal records as well since they differentiate themselves with the name of the spouse, place of birth or current residence and almost always at least a father's and possibly both parents' names. This in turn helps determine the correct baptism record for your person of interest, as well as children's records and potentially siblings as well. 

Although the information in marriage records can vary from parish to parish and priest to priest, they usually follow the same format and have the same basic information. The information found in a marriage record may include:

1. The date of the marriage and/or declaration of banns
2. The name of the groom.
3. The occupation and/or social status of the groom
4. The residence of the groom
5. The name of the groom's father* and possibly his mother
6. The father's place of residence
7. The groom's place of birth
8. Whether or not the groom's father and/or mother is still living
9. The name of the bride, if she was previously married, or the name of her late husband, usually with the term "wittwe" meaning widow. 
10. Occupation of bride
11. The name of the bride's father or late husband
12. The occupation or social status of father or late husband
13. The father's or late husband's place of residence
14. The brides place of birth
15. Whether the father is still living

*If the groom's fathers name is missing, it could be that he was previously married. Men do not always get a status of widow. Look at the priest's surrounding entries to see how he has addressed this issue before. If he commonly does list men as widowers, then the groom could be illegitimate, although they would usually note this. This same reasoning can be applied to the brides missing father. Another reason could be that the couple were married in another church and this is a duplicate record and was recorded since both or either of the couple was born in the parish of record or they currently live there. In this case it is important to locate the original record. Look at where both parties are from by locating the word "von" or "aus" which both mean "from."

Most church records before the 19th century were written in a paragraph or sentence format. However, it is not unusual to find these records up until the early 1900's. These types of records can have more information, but tend to be harder to read. 

Examples

**Click on the images for a full page with transcription and translation**

Paragraph Format: 

Below is an exceptional example of of both paragraph and tabular form. The information contained in this record is not common as it lists the bride and groom's birthdates in the notes. 

Sentence Format:

(Full image is available by clicking the image, the transcription and translation is linked below)

Transcriptions and Translation

After the 1800's and the wide spread use of the printing press, most church records were usually kept in a tabular or printed format. It is not uncommon to see parishes using this format much earlier though. Tabular forms are easier to read, but usually have less information.

Tabular Format:

Picture attributions: 

1. Marriage ceremony image: By Franz Niklaus König - helveticarchives.ch; Swiss National Library, Prints and Drawings Department, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38111832
2. Paragraph example: https://data.matricula-online.eu/en/polen/breslau/boberroehrsdorf/83_119_0_0_2/?pg=4
3. Tabular example: https://data.matricula-online.eu/en/deutschland/dresden/grunau/09/?pg=43

Document Citations

1. Boberröhrsdorf | Breslau/Wroclaw, Staatsarchiv | Polen, Matricula-online.eu, Archival identifier: 83_119_0_0_15, Trauungen, Jan. 1, 1785-Dec. 31, 1814, Storage: Archiwum Panstwowe we Wroclawiu Oddzial w Jeleniej Górze (www.ap.wroc.pl) page 15_053. https://data.matricula-online.eu/en/polen/breslau/boberroehrsdorf/83_119_0_0_15/?pg=53 
2. Orlofferfelde Mennonite church record book, Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, KB OR 1.1 at Weierhof. Geburten, Taufen, Trauungen, Todesfälle 1800-1899, Scanned from the microfilm at the MLA, image 182, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/cong_303/182-183.jpg 
3. Grunau | Dresden-Meißen, rk Bistum | Deutschland, Archival Identifier: 09, Trauungen, Jan 1, 1870-Dec 31, 1878, Duplikat, page Grunau 1870_(42), https://data.matricula-online.eu/en/deutschland/dresden/grunau/09/?pg=43