Chrzty szlacheckie w parafii Luzino w drugiej połowie XVIII wieku

This article is the fruit of research on the Kashubian genealogy and demography of a family of minor noblemen in the Early Modern period. Birth and baptismal certificates constitute a rich source of research material, whose thorough analysis enables us to observe the demographic changes taking place in a given community. Despite the fact that the obligation of regular birth and baptismal registration was introduced in the mid-16th century by the Council of Trent, in Poland birth and baptismal books did not become common until the first half of the 18th century. The source basis of the article is the book of baptisms in the parish church of Luzino from the years 1758–1797. Most villages belonging to the parish constituted the property of minor Kashubian noblemen. Out of 3075 baptisms recorded in the book, over 15% concerned the offspring of noble people. The aim of the article is to discuss those demographic elements, which could be captured in the process of the thorough analysis of birth and baptismal records. The research allowed us to define the average annual number of baptisms for subsequent five-year-long periods, to discover seasonality in conceptions and births, and to learn about the time and place of baptisms. The article also touches upon the issue of non-marital births in individual families and attempts to look at the onomastic trends among the 18th century Kashubian noblemen and to reveal the rules they followed while chosing names and godparents for their children.