About the project
Jan Kilian between Texas and Weigersdorf
Emigrant, Sorbian and Old Lutheran
Jan Kilian has gone down in the history books as a pastor, poet and emigrant. As a pastor, he looked after newly founded parishes in both Lusatia and Texas. Weigersdorf is the starting point of his work in the confessional Lutheran church.
In addition to his importance for the emigration to Texas, Jan Kilian's great transfer work for Sorbian Lutheranism must be acknowledged. The translation of theological works and the publication of agendas and hymnbooks in Sorbian laid the foundations for the gathering of Lutheran Christians in the Sorbian settlement area.
The archive
The documents, which had survived for many years in the Weigersdorf parish archive, were in danger of decaying due to inadequate storage. In addition to the Texas Wendish Heritage Museum in Serbin/Texas, the SELK church archive in Oberursel and the Sorbian Institute in Bautzen offered to take over and secure the documents.
However, in 2017, an air-conditioned archive was set up in the Kili Room in the Weigersdorf vicarage. This was made possible with funds from an initial LEADER project (conversion) and support from Texas and the Bugenhagen Association (furnishings).
The digital copies
Three partly interconnected strands of tradition now have their roots in Weigersdorf. Accordingly, these documents have significance for
- the Old Lutheran church history
- the Sorbian tradition
- the emigration to Texas
Due to the geographical distance, the descendants of the emigrants in particular expressed their interest in digitizing the most important archival material. This was made possible with the support of LEADER funding. With the inclusion in the state digitization programme of the Free State of Saxony, long-term archiving is now also guaranteed.
It is now possible to take a look at
- Church records and parish registers of the parishes of Klitten and Weigersdorf
- Agendas and announcement books for the church service
- Handwritten documents, deeds and letters of the time
Collaboration: the potential of crowdsourcing
Finding individual documents used to be very time-consuming. The readability in the PDF reader is already a great relief. In order to make individual research results and the fruits of reading available to the general public, or to enable faster access, special access points can be assigned. Anyone who would like to is welcome to collaborate. Two areas are available:
- Indexing of documents
- Transcription of manuscripts
Promotion
Leader
Development program for rural areas in the Free State of Saxony
LEADER (French: Liaison entre actions de développement de l'économie rurale = connection between actions for the development of the rural economy) is a Community initiative of the European Union which has been promoting innovative actions in rural areas since 1991.
