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cjsulcoski



Joined: 21 Jan 2019
Replies: 23
Location: Pennsylvania

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Post Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2024 7:52 pm      Post subject: Question about Wigry records
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Hello.
I have been researching ancestors in the Wigry area in the 1760-1810 time frame. I can find Wigry church records staritng around 1808-09 but nothing before that. There are some other documents from 1798 and thereabouts with German titles (like Akta die Ansetzung der Schulzen im Wygryschen Kreise betreffend). I didn't think that this part of Poland was under German rule -- so why the German?

Also, Wikipedia says that Wigry parish was formed in 1798 from two dioceses in Lithuania. Would I find older records from the 1700s in the Lithuanian records? Or have older Wigry records not been microfilmed yet?

Thank you for helping me understand.
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Sophia
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2024 6:30 am      Post subject: Re: Question about Wigry records
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cjsulcoski wrote:
Hello.
I have been researching ancestors in the Wigry area in the 1760-1810 time frame. I can find Wigry church records staritng around 1808-09 but nothing before that. There are some other documents from 1798 and thereabouts with German titles (like Akta die Ansetzung der Schulzen im Wygryschen Kreise betreffend). I didn't think that this part of Poland was under German rule -- so why the German?

Also, Wikipedia says that Wigry parish was formed in 1798 from two dioceses in Lithuania. Would I find older records from the 1700s in the Lithuanian records? Or have older Wigry records not been microfilmed yet?

Thank you for helping me understand.


Hi Carol,
The Wigry records that you have seen, while recorded by the church, are actually civil records, "Akta stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Wigrach". The notes in szukajwarchiwach for Wigry begin with this:
"The rules for keeping civil status records in the Duchy of Warsaw were specified in the decree of Frederick Augustus of January 27, 1808, in force from May 1, 1808, based on Art. 69 of the Constitution of 1807 introducing the Napoleonic Code. This task was handed over to Roman Catholic clergy."
This area was part of Ostpreussen (East Prussia) at one time. It would be useful to find historical maps to sort it all out.
Best regards,
Sophia

P.S. Here is more from szukajwarchiwach:

"The rules for keeping civil status records in the Duchy of Warsaw were specified in the decree of Frederick Augustus of January 27, 1808, in force from May 1, 1808, based on Art. 69 of the Constitution of 1807 introducing the Napoleonic Code. This task was handed over to Roman Catholic clergy. The right to perform civil marriages and divorces was entrusted to presidents and mayors. Civil status records then included all religions. On February 23 and March 18, 1809, some procedural changes were introduced. June 13, 1825, art. 71-142 of Book I of the Civil Code for the Kingdom of Poland introduced the principle of combining civil status records with church records. By the decision of the Prince Viceroy of November 3, 1825, mayors or officials replacing them were appointed to draw up civil status records for non-Christian denominations (Jews and Mohammedans). As a result, since 1826, civil status records have a religious character (they record the facts of the marital status of specific denominations). The dean of a given deanery supervised the civil status books kept by the parish priest, and at the same time these books were subject to control by the court authorities. Entries in the civil status books were initially kept in Polish, and from January 1, 1868 - in Russian."
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Sophia
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2024 9:36 am      Post subject:
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Carol,
Have you looked at this information about the parish in Wigry?
https://parafia.wigry.pro/
Under the tab "parafia" there is "historia parafii" (history of the parish) and "historia klasztoru" (history of the monastery).
It is worth considering that if your ancestors were in the skilled trades, they may have come from quite a distance to work on these building projects. That is, they may not have come from Lithuania at all.
Here, it says they brought in carpenters and craftsmen from Italy, England and Prussia:
https://parafia.wigry.pro/parafia/historia-klasztoru.html
Best of luck in your search,
Sophia
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cjsulcoski



Joined: 21 Jan 2019
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Location: Pennsylvania

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Post Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2024 1:13 pm      Post subject: Question about Wigry records
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Thank you so much, Sophia. My family always identified as Polish (not Lithuanian or anything else) and I think they were all unskilled laborers and farmers. Do you have any suggestions for where I might find records for the Wigry area earlier than 1806? Would the Catholic Church parish have their own records earlier than that, which were not transmitted to the state? Or should I look for German archival records? I've looked for Suwalki records and didn't find much. Thanks for any guidance you can give.

The lines I am researching are Witkowski, Bieganski, Stankiewicz, Pietrewicz from the Magdalnowo area.
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BarbOslo
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2024 1:38 pm      Post subject: Re: Question about Wigry records
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cjsulcoski wrote:
Thank you so much, Sophia. My family always identified as Polish (not Lithuanian or anything else) and I think they were all unskilled laborers and farmers. Do you have any suggestions for where I might find records for the Wigry area earlier than 1806? Would the Catholic Church parish have their own records earlier than that, which were not transmitted to the state? Or should I look for German archival records? I've looked for Suwalki records and didn't find much. Thanks for any guidance you can give.

The lines I am researching are Witkowski, Bieganski, Stankiewicz, Pietrewicz from the Magdalnowo area.


Hi,
The books of the Roman Catholic parish from Wigry are only archived in the State Archives in Suwalki. The first years are 1809, except for weddings beginning in 1808. There are no earlier records in this archive. Rarely can you find older church books in the church archive.
I also checked two Lithuanian archives, found no books from Wigry. I don't think anything is in the German archives, but it's worth checking.
https://jzi.org.pl/parafie/wigry/

Regards,
-Barb
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Sophia
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Post Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2024 7:36 am      Post subject: Re: Question about Wigry records
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cjsulcoski wrote:
Thank you so much, Sophia. My family always identified as Polish (not Lithuanian or anything else) and I think they were all unskilled laborers and farmers. Do you have any suggestions for where I might find records for the Wigry area earlier than 1806? Would the Catholic Church parish have their own records earlier than that, which were not transmitted to the state? Or should I look for German archival records? I've looked for Suwalki records and didn't find much. Thanks for any guidance you can give.

The lines I am researching are Witkowski, Bieganski, Stankiewicz, Pietrewicz from the Magdalnowo area.


Hi Carol,

You are researching a time frame that is earlier than anything I have done for my research, so I am not certain how you should proceed. I suppose the most direct approach is to use the contact info from the church's website:

https://parafia.wigry.pro/kontakt.html

and ask them the whereabouts of earlier records.

Otherwise, you are stuck looking for churches that were nearby and finding out whether they have records that go back farther in time, and hoping that some of your ancestors migrated to the Magdalenowo area from one of those places. Seems a hit-or-miss approach.

If you go to Geneteka, and focus on woj. Podlaskie,

https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=pol&w=10pl

and click on the word "parafia", you will see a listing of the churches in this province and the years for which their records were indexed. As an example, you will see "Augustow (U 1800-1916, M 1729-1908, Z 1798-1900)." The U are baptisms/births, the M are marriages, the Z are deaths. As you scroll down that list, you will find many churches that have records prior to the ones required by the Napoleonic Code. So there is hope.

Best of luck in your search,
Sophia
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