German church records, difference between "ledig" and "Jungfrau"? [closed]

Question

While reading German church books, Lutheran church from the 1850es, I noticed that brides are marked sometimes as Jungfrau (virgin), sometimes as ledig (unmarried). I thought they are synonyms, but then came across one correction entry starting that, for the bride in question, it should state ledig, not Jungfrau. While I understand the technical difference, can someone enlighten me to why this mattered in the church record and how they would even know about it? There weren't any children, as this too would have been marked in the Notes column.

Comments

"Jungfru" in Swedish records does not always mean virgin. It could also be an unmarried woman of a certain social standing. Could it be that the Jungfrau was corrected to Ledig because she was of lower origin than first assumed?

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Interesting question. If you add tags for german_roots and germany you will attract people that follow those tags.

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In German Jungfrau means Virgin a very young woman (not in the age of having sexual interactions by today's date) But earlier "Jungfrau" was a "ledig" woman

Ledig in German means single nether married...

Hope this helps?

I have german ancestors but was married for nearly 20 years in Germany before I decided to move to New Zealand...

If any questions in German don't hesitate to ask me.

Answer 1

If there is a correction from "Jungfrau" (virgin) to "ledig" (unmarried) then there was a reason for this. In most cases, it can be assumed that an unmarried wife is a virgin because the priest doesn't know it better, but these are no synonyms. To marry and not to be a virgin was a sin at former times (for a woman). So it was important to note this. Maybe the bride was pregnant and this was visible a short time after the marriage, so her status was corrected.

Comments

This sounds plausible, hadn't occurred to me.

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In the same record a few years later, there was another Jungfrau with a note added later, explaining that a birth soon after the marriage date suggests that the bride's oath of having been a Jungfrau likely was a lie. So I think this must be the explanation for the difference in usage.

Answer 2

The explanation is simple. In church records virgin and unmarried are synonyms, since in the past women entered marriage virginal (at least according to the idea of the church), an unmarried woman (not married before) was also called virgin or maiden.
This is not to be confused with today's technical term virgin.

Comments

But Dieter, if they ere synonymous, why would there be a "correction entry starting that, for the bride in question, it should state ledig, not Jungfrau." ?

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If virgin was changed to unmarried, she probably had an illegitimate child before marriage.

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If she did not have an illegitimate child, she was probably accused of illegitimate sexual intercourse and may also have received a church punishment.

Answer 3

Originally "Jungfrau" meant "young lady", also hinting that she is still unmarried. Only later (which point in time I cannot say) the meaning gradually changed to "virgin". 

I am sure that the church records are not referring to the woman's sexual experience, it stands for "unmarried".

See also https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfrau (no english version available).

Comments

If known, some church records are referring to the woman's sexual experience - when the pastor means this should be notized virgin or not  virgin. Maried as not virgin is a sin if she is not a widow. So the pastor can notize married 'an aller Stille' - that means marriage with only the needed persons and without some cellebrations in the church. Or he notized the fact of not virgin in a latin phrase or he changed virgin to 'ledig' . . .

Answer 4

As others have noted, the words Jungfrau and ledig are ambiguous, with some possible overlap in their use. In church records they might have been used, not to distinguish virgins from non-virgins, but simply to distinguish young unmarried women of potentially child-bearing age from older never-married women past child-bearing age.