[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Rozyszcze Death Records Revisited

William Remus remus at hawaii.edu
Wed Dec 7 18:06:51 PST 2005


I have gotten a number of questions by email on these records. So following will be an illustration followed by a mystery record to challenge for intermediate researchers and then one for advanced researchers. And thereby explain better these records for everyone on the list.

First, these records prior to 1893 are pretty easy to work with even without German. So here is an example followed by a close up of record. Click on the this link (be sure to expand the image)
http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/remus/genes/volhynia/danielfrohlichbig.jpg

And notice the typical page layout with death date, burial date, who died and their parents and village if young or spouse if older, location of birth, and age at death. Look at record 305. From column 3 you will see that Daniel Frohlich from Stanislawka died. His wife was Wilhelmine nee Labrenz. Column 1 shows his death date was 26 October 1876 (the month is several entries above the death date and the year is at the top of the page). 
http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/remus/genes/volhynia/danielfrohlichsm.gif
Now click on the above link for a close up of record 305 for a closer look. In column 4 you see his birth location in (as provided by people in the village - might not be accurate). I find this writing difficult to decipher but it is clear he was born in Kries (county) Kolo in District Kalisch (western modern Poland). The village might be Lestick. How do you know for sure? A good choice is to ask the list for help providing a scan. Some knowledgeable folk like our Jerry Frank can make a better interpretation of the village name and check it against a list of village names in Kolo (such his list is on the SGGEE website). Column 6 is easy it is the reported age at death (possibly inaccurate); In this case it is 60 years. 

Now for advanced researchers to illustrate the Russian records (no wonder our ancestors left). After 1892 the birth death and marriage records are in Russian and here is one such record. Click on
http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/remus/genes/volhynia/wmfrohlich.jpg

Here is the 1894 death record of Wilhelm Frohlich (column 3 - I know by the German text included). But notice that you can't tell without careful work the village of his death and his spouse (Ernestine nee Rudlaff). You can see in column 1 and 2 the dates of his death and burial but you need to know the Russian months to find the month. Note that except for the name Wilhelm Frohlich you are dealing with written Russian Cyrillic script. This is a particular problem in column 4 when you try to find out Wilhelm's birth location. It is probably Russian script of a Russian version of the Polish  name. So here you need to know Russian script plus lots of possible Polish locations.

So advanced researchers, where do you think Wilhelm was born?  (This is not intended to be a trick question - Daniel is not necessarily related to Wilhelm). And what month of 1894 did he die?

This is not intended to scare the faith hearted. Just to illustrate the value of internet friends. 

regards bill



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