Collection of Parochial Registers of Civil Records, Alba county
Description:
This collection comprises civil registers recording births, marriages, and deaths. Originally the registers were kept by each respective parish, church, synagogue, etc. In the 1950s they were collected by the National Archives and made into this overarching collection. The collection is organized by locality and then religion. In addition to birth, marriage, and death records, some of the Christian registers record conversions, baptisms, confirmations, pastor or priest names, and other notes on the development of the community. The Romanian preface to a similar collection in the Mureș county archives notes that in 1784 the Jewish communities were made to record their civil records under the supervision of the Catholic priests. It is unclear whether this may indicate that 18th century Jewish records could be found within Catholic record books. In any case, there are no extant Jewish registers dating prior to the 1820s in the district of Alba in this collection, though births taking place as early as the early 1800s were recorded after the fact in some registers. All Jewish registers held at the Alba archives are described in detail below; please click on a title for more information.