The following alphabetical listing is a compilation of the index found in the Family History Library (FHL) microfilm #1475953:
Marriages 1796-1852; Births 1796-1852/ 1852-1873; Deaths 1815-1852.
(Marriages 1803-1818 are actually not included)
This film is very confusing, because of the two separate time periods, each indexed separately, and the left-side pages and the right-side pages being filmed separately. In order to search for a specific surname you would have to look in a) deaths [2 places]; b) births [4 places]; and c) marriages [2 places]. The marriage index included on this film did not cover all of the years encompassed in the births section. Films #1475951 (1796-1818) and #1810458 (1852-1873) were used to cover these time frames.
The original index of births contains the parents, identified by initials and surname.
[See example "JELDERKS, N.A…." on page 61]
- This index was matched to the marriage index, to get the given names of most of the couples and their marriage year. If they were not included in the marriage index, the birth records of the children were checked to get the parent's names.
- For problem penmanship, efforts were made to look in the film of the original record to see if it was any more legible. If names were spelled differently on each succesive record, the one used most frequently was used.
- Death records were only used to get given names, and sometimes to add death dates when children received a duplicate given name of a sibling.
- In the cases where the couple did not have children baptized in this church they are entered as a couple. They may have been entered as 'proclamations', and were married elsewhere. They could be from a neighboring town, or one spouse could have been a member of this church, while the other was from the Leer Lutheran congregation, and the actual marriage is recorded elsewhere.
- In any event, this will serve as a surname index for persons in the Leer area during and after the Napoleonic Surname edict and also, during the major period of emigration to the United States.
- This book is intended to be an aid in finding the records that you need to search, it is not a primary source. If you find a family in the book, check out the actual records on microfilm. There is a listing of the microfilms available from the LDS on page iv of this book.
- We know there are errors in this book, just as errors were found in the original index. To verify each entry from the index to the original record would have been an impossibility.
If you find any additional data that has been verified or something that should be changed,
please let me know, so it can be changed in any future publications.
We hope you find this book to be generally helpful. Thanks to: the FHL for having the microfilm available to us, Zella for deciphering some of the names, and Lin Strong of O.G.S.A. for final proof-reading and being a cheering section of one.
Jeanee