The Danzig Database

Overview

This “Danzig Database” contains searchable genealogical data concerning Jewish residents of the former city of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and the once independent communities that merged to form a unified Danzig Jewish Community, which existed until it dissolved under threat in 1939.  It currently contains 13,454 records.

There is no information about the distinct post-WWII Jewish community in Gdańsk.  This document describes the varied data sources included in the database, the common format used to display the data, and special considerations for researchers.  It will be updated as the database grows.

Summary of Data Sources

The following data sources are included, with details later in this document:

Additional Danzig data produced by SIG volunteers is searchable elsewhere: the 1814 Danzig surname adoption list is part of the NALDEX database in the JewishGen Germany Database, and burials of refugees in the St. Martin Jewish Cemetery in Bambous, Mauritius are in the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR).

The Communities

In 1883, a unified Danzig Jewish Community was formed by merging the previously independent communities of Altschottland (Stary Szkoty), Breitgasse (Szeroka), Langfuhr (Wrzeszcz), Mattenbuden (Szopy), and Weinberg (Winnicka).  Earlier, the communities of Hoppenbruch (Chmielniki) and Stolzenberg (Chełm) had joined with Altschottland and Weinberg, respectively.  These details are important for using the database, because the communities maintained separate records prior to merging — knowing the community for one record might help find other related records.

In the database, the Community field indicates which of the communities, if known, generated the record.  If unknown, or if post-unification, the Community is listed simply as "Danzig".  Note that records generated in one community often mention other communities.  For example, a marriage might occur in one community but involve a spouse who was previously a member of a different community.  Such details of community membership are also included in the database when present in the original records, typically in the Remarks field, sometimes in the Residence field.

On the search page, you can restrict searches by Town, to match records mentioning specific communities.  For example, if you search for Town is Exactly "Mattenbuden", you will find records that mention Mattenbuden, whether as the Community field or in the Remarks or elsewhere.  If a record only mentions Langfuhr, though, it will not match this search.  If you search for Town is Exactly "Danzig", then records mentioning Danzig itself or any of the communities will match — in other words, the entire database.

Many towns from outside Danzig are also mentioned in records.  The special geopolitical status of the city and its commercial importance contributed to Jewish immigration from sometimes far-away lands.

Description of Database Fields (Common Format)

This database uses a common format to display data from many sources. The common format is used for search results shown under the heading "The Danzig Database," but search results shown under a longer heading, such as "The Danzig Database: Aug 1939 Census," may use a different format, described per source in the section below called "Details of Data Sources."

For sources using the common format, some records do not need all database fields, in which case unused fields are empty. For these sources, if a field is empty, it is extremely unlikely to find that type of information in the original record, as, barring errors, the database includes all the information in the original record for the sources using the common format. An exception is the time (hours, minutes) of an event (e.g., birth), which is not included.

The database fields (common format) are:

• Name (Married Name): Full name of a subject of the record, with married/maiden surname in parentheses.  Here and elsewhere, unless stated otherwise, content in square brackets [] is not present in the original record, but is an informed guess (the Remarks field sometimes explains in [] reasons for the guess).  If you encounter an entry with no surname, but can supply a probable surname based on evidence from other sources, please contact us so we can share that information with other researchers and make the entry easier to find.
• Record Type: "B" = birth, "M" = marriage, "D" = death, "Memor" = memorbuch, "Member" = membership list for a community or organization, "Inscript" = inscription on an object, "Nindex" = name index of a book, "Dir" = directory, "Div" = divorce, "Econ" = economic (e.g.: business transaction, tax list).
• Date: Gregorian date of the event, either as written in the record or calculated from a Hebrew date.  If calculated from a Hebrew date, the Hebrew date written in the record is noted in the Remarks field.  Because Hebrew calendar days begin at sunset, if an event occurred after sunset but before midnight, the calculated Gregorian date is one day too late.
• Age: The subject's age in years at the time of the event; or, if "y," "m," "w," or "d" are included, the subject's age in years, months, weeks, and/or days, as indicated in the record; or, if a full date or partial date is given, the subject's birthdate.
• Father: The subject's father's full name.
• Mother: The subject's mother's full name, with the surname, if present, likely her maiden name.  In principle, it is possible for the mother's surname listed in some records to be a married name from a prior marriage; if there is any evidence of this, it is noted in the Remarks field.
• Spouse: The subject's spouse's given name.
• Residence: The subject's residence, sometimes including a street address, house number, or street name and house number.  For the meaning of text in square brackets [], see "Searching by Street Address or House Number" below.
• Remarks: Anything that does not fit in other fields.
• Community: See "The Communities" above.
• Source: An identifier for the source of the record, and, sometimes, the specific page ("p"), line ("l"), entry ("e"), or registration number ("r").  Identifiers beginning with:
  • "CAHJP" — refers to files in the Danzig Archives of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem;
  • "FHL" — refers to a microfilm at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City.   Sometimes there's an item number after a slash, which specifies the relevant part of the microfilm;
  • "JM" — refers to an item at the Jewish Museum in New York City;
  • "Book" — refers to a publication listed below, under Books.
  • "Web" — refers to a website, listed below, under Web.

Searching by Street Address or House Number

Many records in the database identify the residence of a subject or the building where an event occurred.  This information is useful to genealogists because it can provide evidence that two people from different records are the same person (e.g., they share the same name and live in the same building), or that different people from different records are closely related (since families might share the same residence).  Also, it might enable you to visit the precise location where your relative lived.  This database sometimes includes extra information in the Residence field, enabling you to search records by street address or house number (two forms of identifying a building, used at different times).

An example of a Residence field from the database is "Altstädt. Graben 94 [AltstGr94]."  This means the street address "Altstädt. Graben 94" appears in exactly that form in the record, and "AltstGr94" is the extra information you can use to search for all records with this address, regardless of whether the street name is written in the record as "Altstädt. Graben", "Altstädtischer Graben", "Altst. Graben", etc.  To perform this search, search for Any Field contains "AltstGr94".  Similarly, when a house number is given in a record, the Residence field might be "3. Damm, House #1428 [House1428]," in which case you would search for Any Field contains "House1428" to find all records mentioning this house number, even if they spell the street name as "III. Damm" or do not include any street name.  The idea behind this approach to the Residence field is to provide a canonical form for the street address or house number, independent of the spelling in the record, while also listing the information as it appears in the record.  Note that the database does not have a correspondence between (earlier) house numbers and (later) street addresses, so searching for one will not find the corresponding other.

Details of Data Sources

• Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP), Jerusalem

  • CAHJP Da/286: Mattenbuden birth (6 Aug 1832 – 5 Nov 1846), marriage (18 Sep 1832 – 18 Aug 1846), and death (18 Sep 1832 – 30 Sep 1846) registers.  The birth entries indicate a community, presumed to be the community of which the father was a member, which is given as Mattenbuden in all cases.  The marriage entries almost always indicate a community, presumed to be the community to which the new couple belongs, and almost always indicate the street name or town of the groom's residence, and sometimes indicate the street name or town where the marriage occurred (see Remarks and Residence fields).  There is one divorce record in the marriage register.  The death entries typically include a street name and house number (see Residence field), though it is unclear whether these are for the place of death or the place of last residence.  The fact that this information is missing when the death is noted as having occurred in a hospital suggests it refers to the place of death.  [346 entries]

  • CAHJP Da/533 A yahrzeit list from Mattenbuden, apparently covering deaths during 1825-1877 (one possibly in 1816), though not comprehensive. Written in Hebrew, includes yahrzeit (day and month, no explicit years), given name and title, father's given name and title, and sometimes a surname. The titles often use abbreviations and we do not know with certainty the meaning of all of them. The surnames, where given, have been transliterated from Hebrew taking into account German spellings in other sources. Where surnames are not given, we have included speculative surnames in [], based on comparisons of the yahrzeits, names, and titles with other sources, especially: CAHJP Da/305 (Mattenbuden Memorbuch 1734-1883), CAHJP Da/286 (Mattenbuden Births 1832-1846), FHL 1184410/3 (Altschottland Burials 1720?-1874), and APG 1497 (Danzig Deaths 1852-1879). Before relying on the speculative surnames, please consult other sources yourself. The speculative surnames are NOT included in this source, we have added them as a search aid. The date range 1825-1877 is based on comparison with other sources that include full dates. The introduction to the yahrzeit list mentions the year 5586 (1825/1826) and gabbaim Isaac GOLDSTEIN and Moshe Leib.  [39 entries]

  • CAHJP Da/596 A familienbuch from Altschottland, begun in 1880 and updated through 1882. Entries are grouped by family and typically include each person's given name, surname or maiden name, and relationship to the head of household (e.g., wife). Many entries also include date of birth. Some entries include date of death, previous spouse's name, occupational title, emigration destination, and, for children, marriage date and place and spouse's name. Relationship to the head of household is correlated with line number: line 2 is wife, lines 3a, 3b, ... are "children or other relatives." No children are individually identified as such explicitly, but there are explicit designations of other relatives — because of this, we assume lack of designation implies "child" and have indicated this as "[child]" in the Relationship field. All information has been transcribed. The original title written on the document is "General-Register der Mitglieder der Altschottländer Gemeinde vom 1 Juni 1880."  [418 entries]

  • CAHJP Da/685 A memorbuch from Breitgasse, with dated entries from 3 May 1821 to 11 Jun 1878 (as calculated from Hebrew dates) and many undated entries.  Includes Hebrew given names and father's names, but no surnames, except for the signatures of Hirsch Baecker and Michael Paradies, gabbaim of the Hevra Kadisha of Breitgasse, who apparently wrote part of this in the year 5605 (1844/1845).  Some entries indicate tribal status (Kohen, Levi), rabbinical titles, or other genealogical information (see Remarks field).  [173 entries]

  • CAHJP Da/753 A marriage register from Altschottland (27 May [1838?] – 28 May 1846). Altschottland is presumably the community to which the new couple belongs, but this is not explicit. Only one entry mentions a spouse belonging to another Danzig community, but many entries involve spouses from outside Danzig (see Remarks and Residence fields). Parents' names are, unfortunately, not given except for the father's name of a previously-widowed bride. All information has been transcribed. [70 entries]

  • CAHJP Da/754 A birth register from Altschottland, with birth dates from 21 Mar 1838 to 30 May 1846.  All entries identify the father (first name or first initials, surname), but none list the mother.  [73 entries]

  • CAHJP Da/1156 A familienbuch from Altschottland, begun in 1850 and updated through 1879. Entries are grouped by family and typically include each person's given name, surname or maiden name, relationship to the head of household (e.g., wife), and date of birth (for children). Many entries also include date of death, emigration destination, and, for children, marriage date and place and spouse's name. Some entries include references to other families (e.g., son of one family later became the head of household of another), previous spouses, occupational titles, Hebrew given names (displayed in the Given Name field after /), and status as a non-contributing member of the Community. When emigration destinations are given, it is not always clear whether they apply to the entire family or only some members; this ambiguity is noted in the Remarks column if present. All information has been transcribed. The earliest listed child's birth date is 1810. Many heads of household or their spouses were probably born before surname adoption in Danzig (1814). The original title written on the document is "General-Register der Gemeinde-Mitglieder der Altschottl. Juden-Gemeinde zu Danzig 1850."  [1075 entries]

  • CAHJP Da/1598 A non-comprehensive list of members of the Weinberg community, most with a date indicating the date of membership, which is given in the Date field.  Many entries also contain a date of death, given in the Remarks field, and many indicate a town of residence outside of Danzig.  The dates of membership range from 1817 to 1881, but the vast majority are after 1850.  Some dates of membership are shared by multiple entries, but we do not know the significance of this.  The dates of death range from 1869 to 1881.  The list appears to be written in a single hand, but whether it was compiled at one time or copied from other sources is unknown, as is its date.  [218 entries]

  • CAHJP Da/1645a Census of members of the Jewish Community of Danzig, including Zoppot, dated 11 Aug 1939. The census is grouped by family (apparently, though this is not explicit) and typically lists each person's given name, surname (sometimes, maiden name), date of birth or age, and street address. For many people, there is also a nationality (e.g., Danzig, German) and emigration destination (e.g., USA, Palestine). For some, a destination of Danzig is given, the meaning of which is unknown. Some entries are struck through, the meaning of which is unknown, and this is indicated in the Remarks field. All information has been transcribed. The original title written on the document is "Mitglieder der Synagogengemeinde zu Danzig einschl. Zoppot vom 11.8.1939." Note: Most of the Jewish Community emigrated prior to this census.  [1664 entries]

  • CAHJP Inventory Name Index Index of personal names from CAHJP's inventory of the Archives of the Jewish Community of Danzig. Includes the corresponding CAHJP file numbers and descriptions. Note that this is not an index of the contents of the files, only of the inventory itself. However, it is still valuable in that it can help you find some files of interest even if we have not indexed their contents.  [168 entries]

  Notes: The Archives of the Jewish Community of Danzig was "the first major community collection to be deposited" at CAHJP.  The approximately 2,000 files, some hundreds of pages in length, were shipped from Danzig to Jerusalem in 1939.  Our efforts to transcribe these files are ongoing, and more will be added to this database.  The original files can be consulted at CAHJP, which is located at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem (for information about visiting, click here, and call in advance, if possible). Note: CAHJP has moved from its prior location.

• Family History Library (FHL), Salt Lake City:

  • FHL 1184407/2 [Gatermann]: A Danzig birth register, with birth dates from 3 Jan 1905 to 7 Oct 1931.  Most include both parents' names and a street address.  Some parents are identified as not being Jewish (see Remarks field).  Some fathers, and rarely mothers, are listed with an occupation and/or title (see Remarks field, which indicates to whom the occupation and/or title applies when explicitly indicated in the register).   [1,598 entries]

  • FHL 1184407/3 [Gatermann]: A Danzig birth register, with birth dates from 10 Oct 1931 to 17 Mar 1939.  Most include both parents' names and a street address.  A few parents are identified as not being Jewish (see Remarks field).  In two entries, where the mother's maiden surname is GWIERC or GWIRR, there is a note in the Remarks field to consult this Introduction regarding the contents of an insert into the register, too lengthy to fit in the Remarks field.  The contents are: "Auf Anordnung des Amtsgerichts Abt. 15 in Danzig 15.III.29/39 - vom 09-MAR-1939 wird berichtigend vermerkt, dass das Kind nicht von der Ehefrau des Kaufmanns Wolf JABLON, sondern von der Witwe Anna GRÜNBERG, geborenen GWIERC, ausserehelich geboren ist. Die Wohnung der Mutter der Kinder befindet sich z.Z. Starodingasse 7."   [622 entries]

  • FHL 1184407/4 [Gatermann]: A birth register from Weinberg, with birth dates from 30 Mar 1839 to Jan 1847.  All entries identify the father (usually with first name and surname), but none list the mother.  Almost all entries include a street name and house number.  Page 1 of the register is not on the microfilm, but is partly captured without names or dates in the frame for page 2.  This partial information includes the following house numbers and several that are illegible: 136, 449, 506, 513, 548 (x2), 617, 646, 661, 665, 1073, 1590, 1909.  [127 entries]

  • FHL 1184407/5 [Gatermann]: A marriage register from Weinberg, with marriage dates from 10 Dec 1837 to 26 Jan 1847.  Most entries include a street name and house number, presumed to be the residence of the new couple, and many indicate towns (community membership?) of the bride and/or groom (see Residence and Remarks fields).  [164 entries]

  • FHL 1184408/1 [Gatermann]: A Danzig death register, currently about 17% indexed, with death dates from the indexed part from 18 May 1925 to 16 Jun 1927 and 13 Jul 1936 to 6 May 1940. Indexing is ongoing and the database will be updated as more entries from this death register are indexed. All information is being indexed, which can include, depending on the entry: surname, maiden name, given name, Hebrew given name, father's Hebrew given name, father's tribal status (Kohen/Levi), age or birth date, birth place, death date (Gregorian and Hebrew), burial date (Gregorian and Hebrew), grave location, cause of death, doctor's name, miscellaneous remarks.  [326 entries so far, more to come]

  Notes

  • FHL microfilms can be consulted at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah; or at the Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center of Beth Hatefutsoth in Tel Aviv, Israel; or requested to Family History Centers around the world (for locations, click here).

  • For items above marked [Gatermann], the original document microfilmed in this item is not known to survive.  This microfilm copy was made by the Gatermann Company in 1944/1945.  For more information about the history of the Gatermann microfilms, search the JewishGen SIG Lists message archive.

• Archiwum Państwowe w Gdańsku (APG), Gdańsk

  • APG 1497 Births: Birth registers, mostly 1847-1877, comprising volumes 2 and 5-16 of Fond 1497 at APG. Currently, only volume 2 is included in this database, with birth dates ranging from 4 Sep 1847 to 23 Dec 1848 (+ one from 1846); other volumes are in the process of being transcribed/proofread. Each record typically includes the child's given name and birth date; father's given name, surname, and occupation; mother's given name and maiden name. Some records have additional genealogical information, such as the names of other relatives (see Remarks field). In the Source field, the page number typically has the form "p. X / Y," referring to two numbers at the top of the first page concerning the birth, X being struck through and Y not struck through. There is usually more than one page per birth, the Source field only lists the first. The Source field contains a link to a scan of the first page (from which you can navigate to other pages) on the website metryki.genbaza.pl. We have attempted to transcribe all genealogical information in these records, but, if you can read old German handwriting (Kurrent), you might want to check the scans, as some include lengthy narratives that might have other (not necessarily genealogical) information of interest (however, any names or places from narratives should be included in our database).  [108 entries so far, more to come]

  • APG 1497 Finding Aid: Finding aid for the APG 1497 birth, marriage, and death registers (mostly 1847-1877, 1847-1874, and 1852-1879, respectively), comprising volumes 2-45 and 66-70 of Fond 1497 at APG. This finding aid does not include the full information from each record; it is intended to help you locate the online scans of the record so you can view it yourself, while our efforts to index the full information are still underway. The finding aid is mostly the result of transcribing the handwritten index pages at the beginning of each register, but, in a few cases, uses information from the actual records that is different from what appears in the index pages. Each entry in the finding aid typically includes the type of event; stated date range of the volume (some records might concern earlier or later events); surname of the child or decedant (births, deaths), or surnames of the spouses (marriages); given name (births and deaths only, not marriages); volume number; number of the line in the handwritten index that refers to the entry; page numbers listed in the handwritten index for the full record. Sometimes, a maiden name is included in birth or death entries. The volume number is a link you can click to jump to a scan of the first page of that volume's handwritten index on the website metryki.genbaza.pl. From there, you should manually navigate the scans until you find the scans matching the page numbers of your record of interest. The page numbers in the finding aid are often the numbers appearing at the top of the scans and struck through (there are also numbers that are not struck through, so be careful to distinguish them). There is usually more than one page per record and, for marriages, there can sometimes be 10 or more pages.  [4,116 entries]

  • APG Civil Marriages: Marriages with at least one Jewish spouse from civil marriage registers, 1875-1914 (Danzig registry office, Fond 1609) and 1911-1914 (Langfuhr registry office, Fond 4400). Each record typically includes the following indexed information: for each of bride and groom, surname, given name, birth date or age, birth place, residence place, father's surname, father's given name, mother's maiden name, and mother's given name; marriage date; register volume, year, and record number. If a spouse is not Jewish, this is noted in the Remarks. Some records include the following information, also indexed: death registration place, year, and record number; divorce place and year; forced adoption of given name Israel or Sara. Records can also include information that has not yet been indexed, such as: street addresses, occupations, parents' towns, indication of whether parents are alive or deceased, witnesses, relationships to witnesses, etc. You are strongly encouraged to examine the original records, which you can do by following either of the links in the Images field, to indeksy.net or genbaza.pl (no registration required). Note: we consider spouses in these records to be Jewish when their religion is listed as such (i.e. "mosaischer," "jüdischer," or "israelitischer").  [1306 entries from 653 marriages]

• Jewish Museum, New York City

  • JM D166: This book of the Eternal Light Society of Mattenbuden, dated to year 5593 (1832/1833), includes a list of names in Hebrew, apparently members of the Society.  Each entry has a given name and father's name, and sometimes a title, father's title, or tribal status (Kohen, Levi).  There are no surnames, but several speculative surnames are included in [] in the database from comparison with other sources, such as object inscriptions or the 1814 surname adoption list.  [28 entries]

• Books

  • Book Danzig 1939:
    Danzig 1939: Treasures of a Destroyed Community. Edited by Sheila Schwartz. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1980). ISBN 081431662X.
    Inscriptions on surviving objects from Danzig that mention individuals, translated from Hebrew or in the original German, plus information about the objects from this exhibition catalog.  The Date field indicates the date of the inscription, if given.  The inscription itself and other information is in the Remarks field.  Some long inscriptions have been truncated.  For the full text of truncated inscriptions and additional background information about these objects, note the object # in the Remarks field and click here for more information.  Many inscriptions include surnames, but many do not (and some predate surname adoption).  Some speculative surnames are included in [] in the database from comparison with other sources.  If you can supply a missing surname, it is very important that you contact us, since these objects provide a rare opportunity to have a physical connection with relatives from such a long time ago.  The objects themselves are at the Jewish Museum in New York, but only a small portion might be on display at any time.  Some are photographed in this book, and additional photos might be obtainable from the Jewish Museum.  During the 2006 IAJGS Conference in New York, museum staff graciously arranged for members of the Danzig SIG to view some of the objects not normally on display.  [157 entries]

  • Book Lichtenstein:
    Die Juden der Freien Stadt Danzig unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus. by Erwin Lichtenstein. (Tübingen: Mohr, 1973).
    A list of names from the book's index, with the corresponding page numbers (see Source field).  For details of how these people are mentioned, you will have to consult the book.  Some people in the book were not from Danzig or Jewish, and we have attempted to remove obvious examples from the database.  This name index was extracted with permission of the Leo Baeck Institute (Jerusalem).  [342 entries]

  • Book Leipzig Freudenthal:
    Leipziger messgäste: die jüdischen besucher der Leipziger messen in den jahren 1675 bis 1764. by Dr. Max Freudenthal. (Frankfurt am Main: J. Kauffmann, 1928).
    A list of Jews from Danzig attending the Leipzig Fair, with years of attendance from 1687 to 1763, and, sometimes, names of accompanying relatives or other people (see Remarks field).  There are few surnames, but several speculative surnames of later attendees are included in [] in the database from comparison with the 1814 surname adoption list.  The Name field lists the name as it appears in the book, usually as a double name (e.g., David Jakob), where the second name is presumed to be the father's name.  The second name is not listed in the Father field because we cannot be certain this is the meaning in all cases.  There is one triple name, and its division between son and father is unknown.  [41 entries]

  • Book Kunst:
    Novum Corpus Constitutionum Prussico-Brandenburgensium Praecipue Marchicarum, Oder Neue Sammlung Koenigl. Preuss. und Churfuerstl. Brandenburgischer, sonderlich in der Chur- und Marck-Brandenburg, publicirten und ergangenen Ordnungen, Edicten, Mandaten, Rescripten &c. &c. von 1771. 1772. 1773. 1774. und 1775. Volume 5, Part 2. (Berlin: Christian Ludewig Kunst, 1776).
    Scans available on Google Books at https://books.google.com/books?id=nyJHAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA533.
    A list of Jews living in the Danzig suburbs of Hoppenbruch, Stolzenberg, and Langfuhr who were granted protected status by Prussia in 1773.  Their names and details about the meaning of the protected status (types Ordinarius, Extraordinarius, Bediente) appear in the government order, "No. XL. General-Privilegium und Reglement fuer die Judenschaft in den Danziger Vorstaedten, Hoppenbruch, Stolzenberg und Langfuhr. De Dato Berlin, den 9. August 1773."  With a few possible exceptions, no surnames are present in the order, as expected, since it pre-dates surname adoption in the area.  The Remarks field sometimes contains speculation about possible surnames adopted in 1814, based on comparison with the 1814 Danzig surname adoption list included in NALDEX and on the Danzig SIG website, with some additional remarks.  When a name contains two words, it is generally likely that the first is the given name and the second is the father's name, but this is not guaranteed to be true.  [224 entries]

• Web

  • Web Judenporzellan:
    The "Jewish Porcelain": A commented collection of data concerning the legal and social history of the Jews in the Prussia of Frederick the Great 1769-1788, by Tobias Schenk ( http://quellen-perspectivia.net/en/judenporzellan/start).
    Extraction of Danzig-specific data from this website concerning Jews' purchase of porcelain from the Koenigliche Porzellan Manufaktur in Berlin in exchange for various privileges (e.g., settlement, marriage).  For additional background, see the description by Schenk at http://JewishGen.org/Danzig/Judenporzellan.php.  Note that the Name field refers to the purchaser of the porcelain, while the Residence field refers to the residence of the beneficiary of the privilege (usually the same person).  The Date field refers to the purchase date, while the Remarks include the privilege date.  The entry number following "e" in the Source field is the serial number of the purchase.  Some Remarks fields are truncated and indicate that the full text can be found at http://JewishGen.org/Danzig/Judenporzellan.php.  Also found there, but not in this database, are the purchase prices of the porcelain.  Purchase dates range from 13 Apr 1774 to 31 Dec 1786, before the time of surname adoption in the Danzig area, so few surnames are included.  Surnames in square brackets with question marks, like [COHN?], are speculations based on matching names in the 1814 surname adoption list.  When a name contains two words, it is generally likely that the first is the given name and the second is the father's name, but this is not guaranteed to be true.  [51 entries]

Errors

All entries in this database have been proofread by at least a second volunteer, but errors are always possible.  If you believe you have found an error, please tell us what you believe is wrong, why, and the Source field for the entry.

Acknowledgments

This database exists because of the cooperation of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (Jerusalem), the Family History Library (Salt Lake City), the Jewish Museum (New York), the Leo Baeck Institute (Jerusalem), and the GenBaza/GenPol team (Poland); the volunteer efforts of Barbara Algaze, Tamar Amit, Joyaa Antares, Angelika Boening, Rodney Eisfelder, Kathy Glatter, Logan Kleinwaks, Zeeva Levy, Roni Pelled, Irene Peters, Dan Ruby, Colin Smith, and Yariv Timna; the support of Barbara Algaze, Ralph Chayen, Mark Kalisch, Logan Kleinwaks, Andreas Parusel, Gerard Salomon, Dr. Michael K. Schulz, Senta Simon, and Rose Losch Speiser; and the dedication of the current and former JewishGen team, including Warren Blatt, Joyce Field, Susan E. King, Michael Tobias, Gary Sandler, and Avraham Groll.  If you would like to assist in making more Danzig genealogical data available online, please contact us.

Searching the Database

This database can be searched via either the JewishGen Germany Database or the JewishGen Poland Database.