Šiaulių (Alkiškių) evangelikų liuteronų parapija ir archyvas

The Evangelical Lutheran parish of Šiauliai province (Ger., das Kirchspiel Schawli, Schaulen; die Schaulenschen Evangelisch-Lutherischen Gemeinde) was established in the early nineteenth century; from 1832 to 1919, it was subordinate to Vilnius diocese of the consistory of Courland (Ger., Probstei Wilna, Wilnaschen Diöcese, Wilnaschen Bezirk). Its development reflects the general trends in the development of Lithuanian Lutheran churches in the nineteenth and twentieth century. From the middle of the seventeenth century onwards (especially after 1795) the Baltic Germans (Deutschbalten) of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia began to buy manors in northern Lithuania. In this way, a number of closed Evangelical Lutheran communities were evolved as early as in the first half of the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries on the estates owned by the Lutherans (Daunorava, Eglesiai, Vismantai, and elsewhere). There arose an opportunity and the need to establish houses of prayer primarily in the center of the county, Šiauliai (1793, 1800), and later in other towns; initially, these prayer houses were usually set up in private residences. In the nineteenth century, new Evangelical Lutheran cemeteries were also established on the outskirts of towns (Šiauliai, Joniškis, Žagarė), next to churches (Alkiškiai), or in villages (Nartaučiai, Degučiai, Juodžiai, Bileikiai, Vismantsai, and others); as many as 18 of these cemeteries were mentioned in 1841. [...]