Jewish vital records from Danzig for the period 1846-1879 (some partial information up to 1927) are now freely available online, scanned from the Polish State Archives in Gdańsk, Fond 1497. The scans can be viewed on two websites: metryki.genbaza.pl (registration no longer required), indeksy.net (new, registration not required). When you follow one of these links, you should see a list of links for volumes 0001-0078 (note: indeksy.net is missing volume 78 and also lists non-Jewish volumes from Fond 1496 on the same page). Clicking on a volume link will show links to the individual images in that volume, the first of which generally describes the contents (though, not always correctly). The contents are also described in TABLE 1 below (hopefully, more accurately). Note that volumes 0046-0065 are for towns other than Danzig (Berent, Dirschau, Marienburg, Neustadt, Stuhm). If viewing the descriptions in the images, remember that geburts/urodzen=births, heiraths/malzenstwo/slub=marriages, sterbe/zgonow=deaths.

There is not yet a searchable datatabase of the full contents of these records, except for volume 2 (search here), but most of the volumes include at least a partial (handwritten) name index. The image number where the index begins is also shown in TABLE 1. These handwritten indexes have been transcribed in TABLE 2 below and are also searchable (as of 27 Feb 2024, following careful proofreading) as part of our Danzig Database.

Eventually, we will transcribe the full records containing additional names and other genealogical details, making this finding aid obsolete (except in cases where the handwritten indexes refer to records that are missing from the registers). It is important to note that the indexes are not always complete, that some indexed records are missing, and that the page numbers shown in the indexes can be difficult to use. On the last point, on any given page you might see three different numbers in the corners that seem like they could be page numbers, but it might not be clear to which the index refers. To figure this out, try examining the first record after the index, looking for a page number that matches the number shown in the index. Sometimes, the indexed page number is crossed out on the page. Even if you cannot figure out the numbering, note the order of the names in the index, as the order is often preserved.

Some of these records are already available on LDS microfilms, but these images are higher resolution and in color.

Thanks very much to the GenBaza / GenPol team and the Archives in Gdańsk for making these scans freely available online.

Contributions from Logan Kleinwaks and Colin Smith.