I am new to German genealogy and could use some advice about understanding information in a church register index. From the home page of the Hannover Regional Church Archive, I clicked at link to “Church Register Index According to Garbe1960.” This is a nice index of the many churches in Hannover and it shows information about the years each church was active. I need help understanding what the index says.
I am researching a very small town named Hilter, which can be found in the index. The third column in the index is titled Taufen which I understand means baptism. There are many dates and abbreviations in this column; if I can understand the dates in this column then I can understand the dates in any column.
Here are my questions about the numbers in the Taufen column for Hilter:
- In the upper right corner is the number 1634. Some other columns for HIlter also have 1634 but other columns have 1822 and 1754. I assume this is a year but what does it signify? Is it the first year the church was in operation? Something else?
- Then appear the numbers L April 1659 – Jan. 1661 followed by L 1665 – 1693 and Uv 1702 – 1729. I understand L stands for lüken which means “gaps” in English. I also understand Uv stands for unvollständig which means “incomplete” in English. So I am seeing three different ranges of years. April 1659 to January 1661 has gaps in the records, 1665 to 1693 also has gaps in the records, and 1702 to 1729 is incomplete. Is this correct? Does this also mean there are NO records before April 1659? Does it also mean there are no records from January 1661 to 1665? And can I assume there are no records after 1729?
Thank you very much for any help you can provide.
