This register is from the Lutheran Church in the town of Csernye (now Bakonycsernye) in Veszprém county. It illustrates a phenomenon of the time -- a massive number of summer deaths due to cholera. Note: this town had (and still has) a significant Slovak population, therefore a Lutheran church in an area dominated by the Roman Catholic and Reformed faiths.
Format: Hand-Drawn Tabular Death Register.
Content of Register.
for general information on the Cholera Pandemic of the 1820s/1830s.
The page of the register shown covers the deaths over 7 days at the end of August and the beginning of September in 1831. Every death on the page is due to cholera. Entry #226 records the death of my third-great-grandmother Juliana Kováts Barát at age 44.
Column.
- Sequential Number -- Folyo szám: Note that there were already over 200 deaths at the end of August. In this town, for an entire year, only 50-60 deaths were typically recorded in the Lutheran Church register.
- Death Date -- Meghaltás Napja: Note that since 1828, churches were required to record the death date as well as the burial date.
- Burial Date -- Temetés Napja.
- The Deceased: name, civic status, and place of residence -- Halott / neve polgári sorsa és lakhelye: the entry for my ancestor reads: "Juliana Kováts, widow of John Barát, the miller of (the village of) Sikator."
- Age -- kor: Note that most of the cholera deaths recorded on this page were adults of middle age. My ancestor died at age 44.
- Illness -- Betegség: Cause of death for everyone on this page was cholera.
- Presiding Pastor -- Ellát?? Prédikátor.