We visited Parafia Św. Mikołaja, St. Nicolaus Cathedral in Św. Mikołaja Plac [St. Nicolaus Square] – a 15th century Gothic church, last rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century. Once an Evangelical church it holds six centuries of birth, marriage, and death records in bound volumes. The records from the 1500s are narrow books protected by archival covers. There are bound indices to help find entries in the records. There is a notation that the death records from 1890-1945 are held at the USC. The records room was supervised by a Sister of the teaching order of Notre Dame. She told us members of her convent teach in New Baltimore, Michigan! Sister gave us the name of the local expert who can read the Gothic script in both the Catholic and Evangelical records prior to 1900. He is sought out by professors in the region due to his skill and finesse in reading and transcribing the old hand writing and language.
