Wehdem Vital Records

Index lists have been created for many of the Wehdem films. These files are lists of the entries in the church record books at Wehdem Church in Stemwede. The files are organized according the births, marriages or deaths. The dates for each file correspond to the dates on the microfilm copies of the church books available through the Latter Day Saints Family History Centers. Here's a list of the microfilm records available from the Church of Latter Day Saints Family History Centers. Each index file may be organized one of two ways. All are organized primarily by year. The secondary order of listing is either in order of entry or in alphabetical order with the entry number listed. These are in both Microsoft Word files and Acrobat PDF files. You may wish to save them to your hard drive to perform repeat searches.

There are a couple of primary abbreviations in the files: gen. & geb. These are short for "genannt" and "geboren". "Genannt" means that the family is called by another name, usually someone married a female landowner (widow or there were no sons) and the husband took her name. "Geboren" indicates that the bride was most likely getting married for the 2nd time or more. The "geboren" name would be her maiden name. Some files do not show "geb" or "gen", but have multiple names shown for the groom or bride. These would indicate that one of these two situations is present.

Wehdem Records Index Files
The Index Records are intended to be a reference to finding more information using the films
or books and do not contain the entire record information. Nor has the information been stored
anywhere outside these original sources, unless a part of an individuals own family research.

Marriages
MS Word Files (.doc) -
& PDF Format -

The PDF documents are smaller in size and, thus a quicker download. They also have the data formatted in columns, so it easier to read.The Latter Day Saints Library Microfilm Number is noted at the end for each.

Marriages 1663-1722:   0473535
Marriages 1723-1766:   0473536
Marriages 1767-1819: 0473537
Marriages 1820-1859:   0473543
Marriages 1860-1910:   0473544

ALL of them together:
Marriages 1660-1910   PDF
(sorted by Groom's last name)
Marriages 1660-1910   PDF
(sorted by Bride's last name)

Deaths 1801 - 1892: Text
This is a partial listing, courtesy of Beverly Powell. If you have entries that are not included, please send them and we will add them.

Births/Baptisms

PDF Format & MS Word Files (.doc) - . The Latter Day Saints Library Microfilm Number is noted at the end for each.

Listed in order of entry for each year:
Baptism Records 1663-1722:    0473535
Baptism Records 1723 - 1766: 0473536
Baptism Records 1767 - 1813: 0473537 This film is one of the most difficult to read. As a result there are many      names that have blanks in them due to unreadable characters. Traditional searches for specific names will not work well in this file due to the many variations and partial names.
Baptism Records 1814 - 1819    0473538
Baptism Records 1820 - 1835    0473539
Listed alphabetically by year:
Baptism Records 1836-1859:   0473540
Baptism Records 1860-1894:   0473541
Baptism Records 1895-1953:   0473542

Nearly all combined:
Baptism Records 1660-1859: PDF File (sorted alphabetically)

Variations of Names:

Your family name may be Becker, but suddenly you can't find any. Particularly in the earlier records, the names were spelled by the pastor since many people couldn't read. A new pastor may have meant a new spelling. This is a compilation of many of the names from the Wehdem parish and variations in the spellings for them. Thanks to John Rohlfing for creating it. My own line, Rübeck, has been spelled at least 17 different ways. This is a Adobe Acrobat PDF document. To view, click the link, to download, right click the link and choose "save target as".
House Numbers of Wehdem Parish: Here's a list of the house numbers and families in Wehdem, Oppendorf, & Oppenwehe, listed both alphabetically and numerically by village.
>> Here's an explanation of the housing numbers, including the "bei" references.<<

German Keyboard Layout - now that you found names in your family, how do you get that blasted ä,ö, ü or ß on your computer? There are methods using the alt-key functions you can find in character map, as shown here: http://www.wmich.edu/languages/german/studyhelp.htm

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Last Updated: 03/10/2007