Entering places of Birth, Baptism/Christening and Marriage on FamilySearch

ConderKarenS

I have a question about entering birth places, baptismal/christening places, and place of marriage on FamilySearch. I am looking at records from the parish of Eckersberg in East Prussia in the 1800s. (Eckersberg, Johannisburg, Allenstein, Ostpreussen, Preussen). One of the columns lists the residence. I have been listing the residence in the birthplace box (in this example, Nippen).

What should I put for place of christening? Should it be the same as the birthplace/residence (Nippen) or should it be the parish where the records were

recorded (in this example, Eckersberg)?

Also, what do I put for place of marriage? Should I put place of residence listed or the church parish? Do I need to put a note in the entry about any of this?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

 

Gordon Collett

What I do, and I think is fairly general practice, is to put in the most appropriate place for the event. For births, that is where the family lived, for christenings and marriages, that is the church at which those took place. If I don't have the specific church name then I just put in the parish name.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

We face the inverse of this question with modern-day births and deaths: is my birthplace the town where the hospital was, or the town where my parents lived at the time?

For pre-20th-century events, I generally use the parents' residence for the birthplace, and the location of the church for the baptism place and marriage place, because in the areas where my ancestors lived, babies were usually born at home, then were taken to the church for baptism, and couples said their vows in church. But for my spouse's Jewish ancestors, the location of the congregation is generally irrelevant to marriages, except as the location of recordkeeping about them -- weddings were often at someone's home, and it was the rabbi who travelled, not the couple and their guests.

For your wedding with many different locations mentioned, you may need to do a little bit of research: where were weddings usually held in that community? If they were held at the church (with the party afterwards at the bride's family's house), then I'd enter the church's location as the marriage place.

ConderKarenS

@Gordon Collett Thank you. I have seen some marriage records where the groom is from place 1, the bride is from place 2, and the village/residence is listed as place 3 (different from the Parish name). Would I list the residence or the Parish in that case?

ConderKarenS