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Location: Travel > Parochial Certificates
Parochial Certificates
Parochial Certificates are the official documents provided by the Lutheran and Reformed pastors
to families moving away from their home church. The parochial certificates
for the Volga Germans are generally written in German or Russian or both.
Philip Freimann provides this concise summary of the purpose of the
certificate: I was told that the purpose was for
the "sending" pastor to tell the "receiving" pastor / church in the new
country that this family was in good standing, having been baptized,
married, regular communion, etc. Something we would call a "letter of
transfer" today.
Ken Leffler points out the religious aspect of the document:
It contains the dates of their confirmation in the Lutheran faith, that they
have satisfactory knowledge of Scriptures, and the last date they took
communion. I believe these documents were issued so the immigrants
would be readily accepted into the Lutheran church at their destination.
Doris Horst Merrick said her grandfather's certificate was
entirely handwritten in German, in the old-style script. I have been
able to decipher and translate all but a few words. The top line reads,
"Auszug auf den Kirchenb=FCcher der ev. reformierten Gemeinde Norka,
Gauv. Saratow, Russlande" (Excerpt from the Church records of the
evangelical reformed congregation Norka, Province Saratov, Russia). The
first column is headed "Taufen und Familien namen" (Baptized and family
names), followed by columns for place and date of birth, marriage ,
(scripture) knowledge, confirmation, date of last communion, and a
notation regarding leaving the church. The entire family is listed (my
grandfather (Joh. Konrad Horst), wife, eight children. The document is
signed by "K=FCster-Lehrer J. Rudolph" (Sexton-Teacher) rather than by a
pastor and dated 25 February, 1902.
The purpose of these certificates were
so people could get married and join a church without having to write
letters back and forth between the different churches. One had to have the
certificate to get married and join a church according to Horst Gutsche.
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Obviously these meticulous records were part of the church books which
reinforces the fact that all this detailed information was in the church books
even if the books for your particular ancestral village have never been found.
Clarence Jake Margheim pointed out the different ways in which the certificate
was provided in Russian and German. Dietel
Pastor Fellollmann had a page in Russian and a complete new page in German and Rosenberg Pastor
Hahn the German names in parentheses.
It was also occasionally mentioned as having a second unintended purpose
for many of our ancestors.
Lauren Brantner believes
they were used in the same fashion that we use birth certificates as
proof of identity to obtain passports, to travel abroad, etc. In our
case, they were kept folded inside the passport. And Doris Horst Merrick
mentioned that her father used it as his birth certificate.
It does not appear that the certificates were issued for that purpose,
what government agency needs to know when someone had their last
communion or knew the scriptures? But they were probably a valuable
form of identity in a foreign country where an immigrant had very few
identifying documents except for their passport. So this was an unintended
benefit of having the document.
Also there was not an equivalent type of document
provided by the Catholic church. Although this same
information was kept in the Catholic church books in a similar fashion,
there is not evidence from members of the German Volga mail list of any Catholics having the same type of
travel document.
Thanks everyone who participated in this discussion on the parochial certificates
on the Volga German mail list and to those who sent copies of their family's parochial
certificates, which are included below.
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Parochial Certificate in Russian for Foos of Dietel
Parochial Certificate in German for Foos of Dietel
Parochial Certificate for Reichert of Dietel
Parochial Certificate for Herdt of Rosenberg
Parochial Certificate for Litzenberger of Yagodnaya Polyana
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Parochial Certificate for Groh of Grimm
Parochial Certificate for Heimbuch of Grimm
Parochial Certificate for Schneider of Grimm
Parochial Certificate for Gorr of Yagodnaya Polyana
Parochial Certificate for Weitz of Yagodnaya Polyana
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©2006 Patrice Miller patrice@webbitt.com
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