I'm in the process of creating local family registers of all the important places of my ancestors. Why? I see this as the most ideal platform for communicating genealogical data - and ultimately for preserving it myself. This is because church records and similar documents have largely been lost for most of my ancestral places. However, many have old copies of church registers, ancestral passports, genealogical charts and other secondary sources - but these are often not freely available either. Even worse, over time more and more of this data is irretrievably lost. With the OFB, I would like to offer a platform to all those who have something to contribute to the communities concerned. It will remain an incomplete puzzle, and it will never be perfect, but it should be as complete and accurate as possible. I think this goal is achievable, but I need help - so, even if I repeat myself here - if you have corrections or additions to make, please send them to the author. That way everyone can help everyone else. Thank you!

The OFB ends with the departure of the German population immediately after 1945.

Special events:

1831 - Cholera epidemic: 32 people die of cholera in Heinersdorf, 26 in Kladow and 1 in Marienspring

Sources: 

Data that did not originate from the existing church registers was either already freely accessible on the Internet or was made available for the OFB by other researchers. Their sources are also generally public sources or their own genealogical research.
The author would like to name and thank the most important sources:
 

• Steffan Bruns - the initiator of the OFB
• the Neumark list - www.genealogienetz.de/reg/BRG/neumark/
• Wolfgang Pokorny's excerpts from the Neumärker Zeitung
• Stefan Rückling - for the provision of different sources
• also the genealogical databases - Gedbas and ancestry.com
• as well as many Neumark list members and senders.

The evaluation of the civil registers is initially carried out using the holdings of the StA 1 Berlin. Existing gaps (e.g. Heinersdorf weddings 1892) are to be closed later with the holdings of the StArch Landsberg.

Assignment to the church records and civil registers:

The existing church book duplicates are for the most part kept individually for each place. The individual holdings are then combined into collective holdings. The available years are therefore listed individually. Church register duplicates are available as follows:

• Kladow (with Kladower Teerofen, Jägerwerder)
• Heinersdorf
• Himmelstädt (with Hammelbrück, Schweinebrück, Königsbrücke, Molberg, Taubensee)
• Lotzen (with Aalkastenbrücke, Lübesee, Saugarten Forsthaus and Wild Wiese)
• Marienspring
• Zanzin (with Zanzin Teerofen, Zanzin Rahmhütte)

The local family register also includes 4 civil registries:

• Kladow (with Kladower Teerofen)
• Heinersdorf
• Himmelstädt (with Hammelbrück, Schweinebrück, Zanzin, Zanziner Teerofen, Zanziner Rahmhütte, Marienspring, Königsbrücke, Molberg, Taubensee)
• Lotzen (with Aalkastenbrücke, Lübesee, Saugarten Forsthaus and Wild Wiese)

I would like to make a further comment on the church register duplicates: When editing the duplicates, it is often noticeable that some of them are inconsistent and incorrect. For example, the month of baptisms was dated one month before the birth or death dates were not written correctly. Some dates from the civil registers also do not match the actual events in the church records.  Likewise, some dates could only be guessed or calculated due to poor or hard-to-read copies and scans. Presumably many errors were made when transcribing from the original church registers, which no longer exist. Nevertheless, I have tried to research these errors conscientiously or to merge families plausibly and have noted discrepancies with the respective person.

Detailed source overview:

place	StA/KB	processed	gap
Heinersdorf	KB	1812* - 1874	1848, * 1858/7-12
Heinersdorf	StA	*        1874 - 1912
		oo     1874 - 1934
		+       1874 - 1938/1
Himmelstädt	KB	1812 - 1874	oo/+ 1835, +1865
Himmelstädt	StA	*        1874 - 1905
		oo     1874 - 1927	1926/5
		+       1876 - 1938	1874 - 1875, 1881, 1883, 1887
Kladow	KB	1812* - 1874	1826/19-?*2
Kladow	StA	*        1874 - 1905	1902
		oo     1874 - 1932/1	1876
		+       1874 - 1938	1904/18+19
Lotzen	KB	1812 - 1874
Lotzen	StA	*        1874 - 1895	1878/1882
		oo     1874 - 1898	1880 - 1882, 1891
		+       1874 - 1904	1881 - 1882, 1885,1890 - 1891, 1901 - 1903
Marienspring	KB*3	1812 - 1874	oo/+ 1835
Zanzin	KB	1812 - 1874
	KB*4	1749 - 1795

* The church register pages of the year 1813, bound at the beginning of the duplicates, are partly heavily damaged and torn off for Heinersdorf and Kladow. Not all data could be transferred completely and correctly.

*² The birth entries for the year 1826 for Kladow end in July, despite the correct labeling and numbering of the consecutive pages, I am of the opinion that a page is missing here and has not been bound or has been lost. In my opinion, therefore, entries 19 to ca. 30 are missing.

*³ The church records of Marienspring are listed before 1836 under the name Himmelstädter Hammer(werk).

*⁴ In the Beyersdorf church register 1749-1795. The Beyersdorf church register also contains the entries from Zanzin in this period. However, the KB is not complete and has some gaps (see page 1a). In addition, some of the pages are heavily soiled and therefore often illegible and unidentifiable. The evaluation was generally only carried out for entries relating to the town of Zanzin + residential areas. In many volumes, the location of the plot was also mentioned, which makes it easier to identify. In other years, an attempt was made to identify the location. Nevertheless, it is possible that actions were overlooked. It is therefore worth taking another look at the KB if there are gaps in the families.