Ravensberger Urbar, Medieval manuscript in Bielefeld, Germany.
The Ravensberger Urbar is a 16th-century manuscript that contains records of land ownership, fields, forests, and farms in the Ravensberg region. The text documents what payments and obligations farmers had to fulfill and how the land was used during that time.
The document was created in 1556 under Duke Johann III of Jülich-Kleve-Berg as a record of economic and social conditions. It shows what changes had taken place in land management and the population of this region.
The manuscript reveals how farmers and landowners lived together and what rights and duties they had. You can see which crops were grown and how people divided their resources.
The manuscript can be viewed in published books compiled by Franz Herberhold. Those interested in family history and the times find many details about individual farms and people within it.
The manuscript is particularly valuable for genealogists because it contains names of families and farmers who lived in the region. Through it, one can trace connections between people and their farms back to this time period.
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