Marginal Notations

Marginal notations on Polish Church Records were made for a number of reasons including:

• Correction of errors
• Legitimization of out-of-wedlock births
• Adoptions
• Records of marriage
• Records of death

The parish records were maintained according to a fairly strict set of rules which included the content of the record, the language in which the record was to be maintained, and prohibitions against erasing entries .  If the registrar noticed an error in the entry, he made a notation in the margin and marked both the error in the text and the marginal entry with either a forwards or backwards “F”.  An example of this type of marginal entry was noted in the Birth and Baptismal Record for Jan Markiewicz.

The Birth and Baptismal Record of Józef Niedziałkowski included two marginal notations.

Marginal Marriage Notations in the Birth Record of Józef Niedziałkowski

SOURCE: Roman Catholic Parish of Saint John the Baptist (Szwelice, Maków Powiat, Łomża Gubernia, Congress Kingdom of Poland), Civil Registrations of the Parish of Szwelice for the Year 1897,” folio 130 recto, entry 42, birth and baptismal record for Józef Niedziałkowski, recorded 16 May 1897; filmed as Kopie księg metrykalnych, 1693-1904, Akta urodzeń 1897-1900; FHL INTL microfilm 2,102,501, item 7.

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Marginal Marriage Notations for Józef Niedziałkowski.  The marginal entries, translated from the Polish (although the original document is written in Russian) state:

Józef Niedziałkowski contracted a marital union with the widow Józefa Kołakowska from Pomaski in Szelków on the 28th of January 1928
Pastor of Szwelice, The Reverend Godlewski

Józef Niedziałkowski, a widower, contracted a marital union in Szelków on the 12th of July 1934 with Anastazja Chełchowska
I testify, Pastor of Szwelice, Reverend S. Chełmiński

My grandfather’s brother, Józef, was married twice, once to a widow, and then after this wife’s death, Józef married again.  Both times, the marriage took place in Szelków, not in Szwelice where Józef was born.

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko