Personal books are the main sources of genealogy as they contain a large part of Estonian population from the mid 19th century till 1940.
Lutheran congregations started to keep personal books (lists of congregation members or registries) in various times. The oldest personal books are known from South Estonia from the end of 17th century. The Act of Lutheran Church enforced in 1834 demanded keeping the lists of congregation members or personal books in all congregations. One could generally say that personal books include most of Estonian population from the mid 19th century till 1940.
Since the separation of the Church from the State in 1926, many people lost touch with the church and their data in personal books is not complete.
During 1960s and 80s, the family archive of the Ministry of the Interior (bore different names in different times, currently Population Facts Department at the Ministry of the Interior) has compiled family names’ registries based on the personal books.
In spring 2005, Estonian Genealogical Society started to digitalize those registries to further facilitate using of the personal books and to trace hard-to-find data. Members of the Society and many outside the Society helped with the data input of their chosen congregation (see the list). With the help of the Historical Archives it turned into an unified database with the search engine. Most of the personal books in the Ministry of the Interior are indexed, but the data is not yet ready for use. The project manager of the Name Registry is the board member of the Estonian Genealogical Society Fred Puss (fred@isik.ee).
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