Koźmin Wielkopolski Parish Records

Photo of St. Lawrence Church in Koźmin Wielkopolski in 2001.

Church records for this parish (St. Lawrence) in Koźmin appear on several microfilms (now accessible in a FHC online). As I worked on indexing the births from 1893 to 1907, the handwriting was often illegible. When several children were born to the same couple, the record of at least one of the children was readable and then the readable surnames were applied to the other children. It also helped that many couples had been married in Koźmin or nearby. Using the Poznan Project Marriage Index, I often found the "correct" spellings of names of some of the couples who later became parents. This was not foolproof though as I ran across a groom named Zaradny in the marriage records but as a father he was listed as Zaradniak in baptismal records. The marriage index also frequently listed a church record of the marriage as well as a civil registration of the same marriage. While frequently the same names are in both records, I ran across a case where the bride was listed as Rzekczynski in one record but Rzepczynski in the other. Their children listed the mother as Rzepczynski.

Let's get down to the details! Baptismal records for 1893 to 1900 were on item 3 of film 1199994. The volume actually continues but filming stopped at 1901 presumably due to restrictions on filming beyond 1900. Fortunately the volume was later continued on item 3 of film 2043259 through 1907. This film actually repeats images from 1900 as well but I did not feel it was worthwhile to re-index them. The pages of this register are numbered (but not always in proper order). Pages 329-330 were not filmed-- a likely LDS oversight. So 1903 baptisms numbered 17-33 on these pages are missing.

Kozmin birth records for 1779-1826 were quite a challenge. The mother's maiden name was seldom given. You might have to look for the record of a sibling that did include her name or try to find a marriage record for the parents. Many records did not list any surnames for either parent! That could suggest that they did not have surnames yet as opposed to the priest omitting them. The occupation/status of the father was often stated in Latin but I did not feel that qualified it as a surname. For example, Inquilinorum is Latin for lodger and represented the status of the person rather than their surname. On the other hand, Polish sounding words like Chałupnik (serf) and Komornik (tenant farmer) were indexed as surnames although I suspect they actually represent the father's status. In those instances, even though people might have the same occupation/status, they might not be related as family. There are some general comments about old Polish church records that apply here. More specific comments about the 1795-1826 Kozmin birth records are as follows:
Jozefa and Jozefata seem to have been used interchangeably. The same could be said of Maria and Marianna. Then we have a Marcianna, Martianna, Martina, and Marta group. You can already see how Marianna and Marcianna might be interchanged. While it didn't last long, Lulianna was apparently used for Julianna. On the surname front, Dlugi and Dluzak have a common origin as do Dutkow and Dudkow.

Kozmin marriage records for 1750-1792 have the same issues noted above for the birth records-- missing surnames or occupations as surnames.

The LDS appears to have indexed the parish records. Unfortunately they only identify them as part of the Poznan province without giving the actual parish name. Of course, there's my usual complaint that they don't do accurate work. For example, records for the Kranc family were often indexed as Krane.