Translation of Introduction:
«A treasure trove of Luxembourgish local and national history», is how, in the review published in "Die Warte, 1954, 37/279," Mr. Joseph Hess described Arthur Schon's work: Zeittafel zur Geschichte der Luxemburger Pfarreien von 1500-1800, [Timetable for the History of the Luxembourg parishes from 1500 to 1800].
This work reflects, in fact, three centuries of national history, not just parish and local history. After years of tireless work, the author has compiled a rich documentation, judiciously arranged in chronological order. In five booklets, the parish, bourgeois, and rural life of the inhabitants of the former Duchy of Luxembourg unfolds over 680 pages. The central register of the country's notaries and the valuable collection of the Luxembourg Provincial Council formed the basis of this study
The author himself set out the contents of the Zeittafel in an exhaustive introduction, providing all the necessary explanations about the documents consulted, their content, as well as the judicial style of the procedural documents and sentences. Unfortunately, his unexpected death prevented the scholar from providing his work with the indexes essential to researchers.
Antoin May was able to partially fill this gap by presenting an alphabetical table of the localities cited in the Zeittafel. The index of personal names as well as the table of contents will be the subject of later publications.
Identifying localities was often difficult, especially when it came to those whose names gave rise to diverse interpretations. Since the author preferred to stick to the spelling used in the texts themselves, it was often essential to refer to the documents for examination
He has listed as best he could all the place names and locality names, including the names of lordships, abbeys, and convents.
Generally speaking, only the names of localities appear in this nomenclature; but given the complexity of the subject, indications relating to individuals may have been inserted into the directory.
The first number in ordinary characters indicates the page, the second the year. To distinguish between the first four fascicles, which have a continuous pagination, and the fifth fascicle, which has a separate pagination, it was necessary to provide these pages with the Roman numeral V.
[A fascicule is a single part of a work that is published in installments, meaning it's released at different times, one part at a time]
In this table, the names printed in capitals represent today's official spelling, those in italics indicate the spelling used in the texts. Respect for the original spellings has prompted us to sometimes give the name of the same locality in several forms. Example: Mondercange, Monnerich, Monrich. Toponymists will be grateful for this precision, while historians will find each of these mentions consistent with the others.
Regarding the location of the places listed, it should be noted that the vast majority belong to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. However, Belgium, Eastern France, and West Germany are widely represented, since the former Duchy of Luxembourg once owned territories that are now attached to these neighboring countries.
When referring to Belgium, place names are identified according to the administrative district. For France, I generally cite the department, for Germany, the "Kreis."
The Luxembourg localities listed in the official directory are not located. For place names whose identification did not pose any problems, the names indicated in parentheses refer to their geographical location.
I would not have been able to create this table, due to my professional commitments, if I had not benefited from the particularly kind and voluntary assistance of my wife and my sister.
I pay tribute to Mr. Pierre Grégoire, Minister of Arts and Sciences, who kindly accepted this work in the series of National Publications.
I was also very grateful for the advice given to me by Father Joseph Hurt, Professor Joseph Hess, Marcel Bourguignon, curator of the State Archives in Arion, Canon Emile Donckel, diocesan archivist, and Joseph Goedert, curator of the State Archives in Luxembourg
Mr. R. Ludowissy, an employee of the State Archives, while granting me his assistance in the research of documents for the establishment of this table, is in the process of establishing another index which specifies and completes all the references contained in Schon, in order to facilitate the search for documents
See index at FamilySearch at this link beginning with image 869: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS86-33X7-S?lang=en&i=890
See also Index des noms de personnes figurant dans les tables chronologiques by Arthur Schon.