Family History Library films 897653 - 897657 contain the Catholic Church records (St. Jakobus Kirche) for Hohenberg (Rosenberg), Jagstkreis, Wuettemberg. The Baptism records for the period I need (1830 - 1853) are missing as is the family book for this time period. Does anyone know if there exist civil records of births for this time period in these villages? Fred Kopfler

Fred, About civil records In the the German Empire civil registration were introduced by law in not until 1875. In the time before the German states handled the civil registration separately. In Württemberg the king ordered 1808 that the minister of the church had to act as his registrator of the civil records. In this function the minister had to deliver copies of his records to the administration in Stuttgart. Today these are preserved in the Hauptstaatsarchiv in Stuttgart. About missing records It is well known that the present copies of the 'civil' records in the Hauptstaatsarchiv in Stuttgart are not complete. About half of the records are missing as a German researcher found out recently. Recommendation to deal with your special case 1. Check which film of LDS presents the original church book and which use only the 'civil' copies of the Hauptstaatsarchiv. Use the films of the original records. 2. There are also cases where for a certain time a parish was administered by another parish, mostly by a nearby parish. In this case the records are to be found in the administrating parish. 3. The worst case is that the church book you are missing is indeed lost. That happens from time to time. To learn wether this is the case I would recommend to write a letter to the parish of Rosenberg about your problem. If you are lucky you will get an answer with a hint how to go on. Dieter -- Dieter Joos Ueberlingen / Bodensee, Germany Webmaster of RootsWeb's Baden-Wuerttemberg Mailing List On 19 Jul 2008 at 17:10, kopfler wrote: > Family History Library films 897653 - 897657 contain the Catholic > Church records (St. Jakobus Kirche) for Hohenberg (Rosenberg), > Jagstkreis, Wuettemberg. The Baptism records for the period I need > (1830 - 1853) are missing as is the family book for this time period. > Does anyone know if there exist civil records of births for this time > period in these villages? > > Fred Kopfler >