Need help to understand locations in German church record

Question

I am looking to clarify the locations of my German family branches with more precision as to better search records like those at Archion.de.  The following is data from a Ancestry dataset (Rhineland, Bavaria, Palatinate, and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1556-1973) for [[Gödel-62|Dorothea Gödel]].  The relevant information in the record is Name: Dorothea Gödel, Record Type: Taufe (Baptism), Baptism Date: 21 Sept 1828, Baptism Place: Finkenbach, Bayern(Bavaria), Preußen, City or District:  Finkenbach u Gersweiler.   I understand the city or District to be the town where the church is located and for this record in 1828 I plan to record the location as Finkenbach-Gersweiler, Rockenhausen, Pfalz,  Königreich Bayern, Deutscher Bund (too much?).   However, I'm not sure how to interpret the Baptism Place.  Does Finkenbach, Bayern(Bavaria), Preußen represent the locations of the church hierarchy (perhaps Parish, District, Church HQ)?  I'm curious because I don't believe the Kingdom of Bavaria was part of Prussia in 1828.

I have not uploaded the record image as it is copyrighted.  

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

The two villages Finkenbach and Gersweiler were merged to Finkenbach und Gersweiler in 1798 by the French Administration.

Since 1818 (as result of the Congess from Vienna) the administrativ/political structure was:

Finkenbach und Gersweiler, Landkommissariat Kirchheimbolanden, Rheinkreis, Königreich Bayern, Deutscher Bund

In 1900 it was called Finkenbach-Gersweiler, Bezirksamt Rockenhausen, Königreich Bayern, Deutsches Reich

Finkenbach-Gersweiler came in 1946 to Rheinland-Pfalz, between 1816 and 1946 it was part of Bayern.

Between 1792 and 1814 it was part of the Kanton Rockenhausen, Department Donnersberg of the French Empire.

1304-1602 both villages belonged to the Freie Reichsherrschaft Hohenfels-Reipoltskirchen, Heiliges Römisches Reich. Between 1602 and 1792 the owner/ruler of the two villages changed very often.

But they were never part of Preußen, the name of the ancestry record is simply wrong, like a lot of records on ancestry and FamilySearch are incorrectly labeled.

Comments

Thanks.  Very useful.