Citing German marriage documents from 1822

Question

I found a bunch of documents related to the marriage of Abraham DECKER and Rebekka ARON on FHL film 488380 labeled "Eheverkündigungen, Heiratsbelege 1816-1826." The documents are statements about and by the parents and grandparents of the bride and groom. There are almost twenty pages of documents, each from one to four pages long. At least some of them were created by transcribing death registers in various towns where the specific people lived. You can see all of the documents here.

I would like to cite these documents for the names, dates of birth and death, etc. of the people mentioned in them. What is an appropriate citation pattern for these records? How do I identify specific documents on the film when the film has no inherent structure or organization?

Answer 1

I am assuming you know how to cite the microfilm as a whole but are struggling with how to cite documents within it.

The microfilm probably reflects the archival arrangement of the collection in the archive that holds the original documents, the Staatsarchiv Speyer, which is part of the RheinlandPfalz Landesarchivvverwaltung.

There may be more information at the begining of the film roll, that describes the contents better than the FamilySearch catalogue. I think that the collection probably does have some order, but if a box of un-ordered papers was microfilmed, you could just number the documents and then the pages within the each document, with a note that the numbers are yours. If there are subdivisions on the film, include that to. So something like: film number, item no, document no, page no would help me find the particular page.

I don't read German, but I think there are a few classes of documents here, probably typical of the German civil registration system. If you can figure out which collection was microfilmed, the original archive catalogue may describe these. If the catalogue does not describe items within the collection, you should create a description in your citation e.g marriage license, sworn statement of parental permission.