[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Lipno confirmations

[K. Gallagher]

As with any records, it should be noted that although the Lipno confirmation records are a great substitute for records that have not been microfilmed, they can contain information that is inaccurate and/or misleading.  I have found situations in which the parents named in the confirmation records were the names of the persons raising a child rather than the names of the birth parents themselves.  I learned this when  I wrote to the archives in Berlin for one particular birth record and found the child was actually born to another set of parents.  Since the birth dates of this child and another child born to the parents named in the confirmation records and for whom I have a birth record are only six months apart, the birth record has to be considered accurate.  As always, the information in any record is only as good as the record before it.  It's important to get the record itself. 

This is also a concern when someone posts a genealogy on the Internet based on information found just in the U.S. or Canada without the European records themselves.  Even the immigrant might not have known the true circumstances of his/her birth.   Of course, that opens up the question of how accurate any birth record might be.   

At any rate, cover all the bases and request the birth record itself after using the Lipno confirmation records.