Metadata: Birth records of Jews in Łódź
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- Archiwum, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma, ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- (+48 22) 827 92 21
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- 312/130
- Title:
- Birth records of Jews in Łódź
- Title (official language):
- Metryki urodzenia wyznania mojżeszowego w Łodzi.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish community in Łódź
- Date(s):
- 1914/1939
- Language:
- Polish
- Russian
- Extent:
- 4 archival units (0.1 linear metre)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains copies of birth certificates of the Jews from the city of Łódź from 1914 to 1939, in Polish and Russian. The collection consists of approximately 500-600 entries. The documents contain the following information: name and surname; date and place of birth; parents' names and mother's maiden name. The collection is probably a fragment of a larger group of vital records gathered in the Judenrat in Łódź or the municipality in connection with the applications of the Jewish population for identity documents during the war.
- Archival history:
- The collection was probably purchased by Yale Reisner, head of the R.S. Lauder Foundation's Genealogical Research Program, located at the Jewish Historical Institute from 1 January 1995, later transformed into the Section and then the Genealogical Research Department of the JHI. The circumstances in which the collection was acquired are not known. In 2020, it was handed over to the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute by Anna Przybyszewska-Drozd, head of the Department since 2016.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
In 1826, under the Civil Code of the Kingdom of Poland, civil offices became religious offices. Synagogue supervision districts were established for the Jewish population. Rabbis were at the head of these supervisory bodies. They kept registration books in which they entered data similar to those entered by civil registrars. The rabbis were required to go with the concerned parties and witnesses to the civil registrar to register the relevant vital record. The record was written down by the clerk on the basis of oral statements made by the parties involved and witnesses. The records were written according to a strictly defined formula. The documents drawn up based on these formulas were read out by the clerk and signed by him together with the parties involved and witnesses. Two books were kept, the duplicate being a one-year record book, internally divided into three parts for each type of record.
The original record book had as many years inscribed in it as its pages allowed, and constituted three volumes kept separately for birth, marriage and death records. A separate book of announcements was also kept, but it did not have a duplicate. The number of pages of each newly established book was initialed by a Justice of the Peace and the books closed at the end of each year were to be checked by auditors authorised by the Government Commission of Justice. The auditors submitted the books to the archives of the court of peace after the inspection report was drawn up.
- Access points: locations:
- Łódź
- Subject terms:
- Jewish councils
- Vital records
- Vital records--Birth records
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged in alphabetical order; the materials have not been processed.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Monika Taras; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; April 2020
