These books detail property ownership for Groß Jestin in Kreis Kolberg-Körlin. Unfortunately, these records start later than the ideal situation, with many pages starting in the 1850s and 1860s. However, with the Standesamt completely lost and the only surviving church records (deaths) from the 1800s and 1900s being held hostage by the Archiwum Diecezji Koszalińsko-Kołobrzeskiej, these registers remain a valuable tool for family historians.

As Myron Gruenwald published forty years ago: “They are NOT your records; they are OURS! Let our people go!” At that time, Gruenwald was directing this to the Evangelical Archives in Greifswald that opposed having its records filmed. Today, the problem still persists in various sectors. At the least, some institutions are choosing to have their collections monetized by Archion. Others are making scans available for free. And some either completely restrict access or make access so difficult that the records might as well not exist in the first place. The only thing we can do is voice our opinion loudly and respectfully in the hopes that at some point, somebody listens.

Let’s just hope that when they are finally put in the public domain, the memory still exists to rebuild the story of those ancestors and that the purpose was not lost to time.

• Grundbuch von Gross Jestin Band 1 Blatt Nr 1-50
• Grundbuch von Gross Jestin Band 2 Blatt Nr 51-100
• Grundbuch von Gross Jestin Band 3 Blatt Nr 101-150
• Grundbuch von Gross Jestin Band 4 Blatt Nr 151-175

This collection has not been transcribed yet.

Help us make these records more accessible for researchers worldwide. If you can read old script, we would love your help to make the entries in these books searchable. Please consider donating your time, even if it's just for a few pages. (We also use Google Sheets so you can see where the last person left off and where the work needs to be continued!)

If you're interested, please send an email to [email protected].

Christopher DeWuske

I founded this website to help others make connections with their genealogy. I've been at my own family history since 2014 and have made significant progress since then. My hope is to one day determine where my family name came from. In the years since I started my genealogy, I've become something of an expert on the resources and history of Pomerania. I'd like to share what I've learned with you to help you on your own journey to discover your heritage. With the right information and enough patience, I believe researchers like us can break down the barriers to our family histories and make more freely available so others can trace their families as well. Let's work together to rebuild the stories of our ancestors!