German Genealogy

This is just a sampling of the many resources available for German research.  There are numerous books in print to help you, as well as a booklet from the Family History Library that is also available on line at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Germany_Genealogy.

1.                From America to Germany:  How to find a German place of origin.

Living relatives who have personal knowledge

Death certificates

Church records, especially if they are from German-language or ethnic groups  (Germans continued to keep detailed records even in America)

The series Germans to America—a good resource, but contains errors—always verify against original sources

Wills

Family Bibles

Census (usually just gives regions of Germany, such as Prussia, Palatinate, etc.)

Some ship registers (again, if any origin is given, it will usually be a general area)

1850-1934 Hamburg Passenger Lists—available on microfilm from the Family History Library, and indexed.  Lists the last village of residence (letzter Wohnort)

1750-1900 Wuerttemberg Emigration Index, compiled by Trudy Schenk, Ruth Froelke, and Inge Bork.  Also on Ancestry.com (available free at the FHC)

Where did the neighbors come from?  Sometimes families and friends emigrated together.

            Names of farms could have been named for the home village.

When locating villages in Germany, be aware that there are possibly many villages with

the same name.  Googlemaps, geotargit.com and

http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/ are useful for locating your village once you have a name.  If you can’t find it, try omitting prefixes and searching under the main name.  Common prefixes:

            Groß (great)

            Klein (small)

            Unter (lower)

            Ober (upper)

Also, some “villages” might be larger regions.  Kreis and Grafschaft both roughly correspond to a county.  Amt and Oberamt are governmental districts, and a Kirchspiel is an ecclesiastical district, as is a Pfarramt.  A Herzogtum is a duchy and a Königreich is a kingdom.

2.                German history and regions:

You must learn about the history of the area you are researching.  “Germany” is a relatively new country, formed in 1871 from a host of kingdoms, principalities, and duchies.  Some of these “countries” were spread out over various unconnected holdings that the nobleman owned.  The driving force for unification was Prussia, which began in the northeast and gradually expanded to cover most of modern Germany.  Between 1871 and 1945, German territory spread all the way into today’s Poland.  There were also many German communities in the Sudetenland (Czech Republic), Siebenbürgen (Romania), Russia, Alsace-Lorraine (France), and others.  Many immigrants in America came from the Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz), but because there were so many, most Americans called them all Palatinates.  This does not mean that they necessarily came from Rheinland-Pfalz. 

Because of this scattered history, there is no central location for genealogical records.  You must know the specific area your family came from and search locally.  This is not entirely a bad thing; since the records were all spread out, they have been largely preserved through many wars. 

Important dates:

Mid-1500s—the Catholic church requires church membership records (such as baptisms).

1618-1648—30 Years’ War.  A terrible war between Lutherans and Catholics, Swedes, French, and Austrians, that decimated 1/3 of the German population.  Many records destroyed.  Most church records in reality begin around 1650.  Relocation within the population, including Swiss immigrants coming to fill in lands that were laid waste.

1708-9—This winter was so cold that the Rhine froze solid, and many emigrated to America.

Early 18^th century—France makes various land grabs for land west of the Rhine. Some records destroyed in this time.

18^th century—many famines, wild weather, and poverty impel many to flee to America.

1871--Germany as we know it today becomes a unified nation.

First half of 20^th century—World Wars I and II.  Again, many records destroyed, population dispersed, Germans expelled from former lands, boundaries reduced.  Two Germanies, East (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR, or German Democratic Republic) and West (Budesprepublik Deutschland, or Federal Republic of Germany)

Oct 1, 1990—Reunification of the two Germanies into one nation.

3.                Resources for German Research:

Church books (Kirchenbücher)—This is your best source of information.  You need to know which religion your people were.  Lutherans (Evangelisch) and Reformed (Reformiert) sometimes shared church buildings and church records, with the pastor noting who belonged to which religion.  Lutheran/Reformed records were mostly in German (with some Latin); Catholic records contained more Latin. 

Birth records—child’s name, parents’ names (sometimes including the mother’s maiden name), father’s occupation (useful if more than one person has that name in the village), godparent(s)’ names (often a close relative, such as an unmarried aunt or uncle of the child), date of birth and christening

Confirmation records—Lists children who were confirmed at different times of year.  Lutherans were around 12-14 years old; can help establish age or residency in a certain town.

Marriage records—Groom’s name and sometimes occupation, bride’s name, and usually bride’s parents and occupations.  Sometimes the groom’s parents were named, but not always.

Death records—Name of deceased, age (often to the month and day), cause of death (sometimes), parents (sometimes, especially if a child). 
Familien bücher/Ortssippenbücher (family books/town books)—compiled from churchbooks and other records.  Families listed together.  Some are in print, some are on microfilm through the FHL, some are even on line.  Try a World Cat search (interlibrary loan on line catalog) for “Familienbuch” and your village name.

Printed matriculation records (Matrikel)—list name of student, year of entry into school or university, and city of origin and/or father’s name.  Also includes professors.

Printed books on emigration (Auswanderer)

Land and court records—sometimes have marriage records, records of people retiring while their son runs the farm for them

Printed directories (lists people in different trades and where they are located, before telephone books)

Local printed histories (try the FHL catalog and World Cat)

German Lineage Books (Deutsche Geschlechterbücher)—excellent series of books by the Starke Verlag in Germany.  Lists German citizen families.  Some errors, so double-check!  Hard to find in U.S., but can be purchased on CD-Rom from the company web site.

House books—some towns have histories of every head of household to live in every house.  Try the FHL catalog or World Cat.

Police records—this includes emigration records.  Even today, every resident (including non-Germans) who move within German are required to register at city hall.  This is an Anmeldung.  When they move, they must Abmeld, or deregister.  This can be a source of genealogical information, although it is not available before the 19^th century.

Local archives in Germany—may require hiring someone to search them for you—use this as a last resort, as it is costly.

Citizenship records—lists when someone became a citizen of a town or city. More involved than just being born there.

Guild records

Tax records—some are in print

Census records and civil registration—the Familysearch library has some of these—check the catalog

Military records—difficult, as they are spread over the country

Organizations that deal specifically with the subject of ethnic Germans from Russia and Ukraine, for example, these:

Germans from Russia Heritage Society http://www.grhs.org/

Germans from Odessa, Ukraine http://www.odessa3.org/

NDSU Germans from Russia Heritage Collection http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/

For persons missing in World War II, the German Red Cross operates a site dedicated to reuniting the lost with their families. http://www.drk-suchdienst.org/. Also this bulletin board: http://www.vksvg.de/board.php?boardid=22  Some war orphans from northern Germany ended up in Lithuania, called “Wolfskinder.” Many people were displaced during the war.

Posen Project at http://poznan-project.psnc.pl/. Posen used to be part of Prussia and is now in Poland. However, there were many Germans there once upon a time. This project is to index marriage records.

Tombstones are NOT good sources of genealogical information.  Because of space concerns, graves in Germany are recycled after 25-30 years, so forget going over there to search the cemetery.

4.                Internet resources: 

            www.familysearch.org. 

  Many new resources all the time. Most (but not all) microfilmed records have been digitized and can be viewed at home. Some digitized material can only be viewed in a Familysearch library, due to request by the owner. Indexing is ongoing so that you don't have to wade through the handwriting, although even if you find an indexed entry, make sure to have a look at the original scan if it is linked. Sometimes additional information will be given that was not required in the indexing fields. Sometimes the indexers (who are only human) misread names, too. So always check back to the original! Familysearch probably has the largest collection of original record scans in one place, which is useful in a country where the genealogical resources are so spread out. It is very weighted towards southwest Germany, though (Baden-Wuerttemberg/Rheinland Pfalz), and it can be much harder to find records from northern Germany there. Just because you find a Dorothea Schumacher listed on Familysearch in the 1700s in Baden-Wuerttemberg does not mean she is the same Dorothea Schumacher you are looking for from Wolfenbuettel! The holdings do not cover every individual who ever lived, so proceed with wisdom. 

In addition to original records, you can check the library's catalog and enter the place name to see what other materials may be available. There may be books or other collections with genealogical information. Physical books are non-circulating but can be viewed at the main library in Salt Lake. However, you may be able to find some of them scanned and free on Google Books, and you may be able to order some of them through your local public or university library's Interlibrary Loan program. And of course, there are also family trees on Familysearch. Check sources or write to the contributor and ask for their sources.  It can save you from reinventing the wheel if the research is good; on the other hand, if it’s, not, you’ll know to delve further before believing stories of castles on the Rhine. 

  Ancestry.com. Ancestry has some original records, although many of them are duplicates of Familysearch. You can use this as a starting point to see what people may have sussed out so far, but there is a lot of unverified unsourced family history there as well. 

Felix Gundacker is an amazing Austrian genealogist who initiated the GenTeam site at https://www.genteam.eu/index.php?lang=en.  German speakers lived all over Central Europe. This site is mostly focused on Austria, but as Bohemia and other locations were part of the Austrian Empire (and Germans lived in Bohemia), this is useful. It has a helpful gazetteer to assist in locating villages and the corresponding church districts (which you can then search for records). Registration is required, but the site itself is free.

Don Watson’s wonderful German genealogy web site (http://www.amason.net/hessen/index2.htm).  Go especially to the “table of links” in the Gold Box.  Focus on Hessen, but very useful for all German research.  You can spend years looking at this site! 

https://www.adelsquellen.de/adelsforschung/ Institut Deutsche Adelsforschung.  German nobility site.  The company is easy to work with, although most people do not have noble ancestors.

Town web site—www.<yourcityname>.de.  Larger cities have English

translations.  Look for anything that lists sources for the information (Quelle).

http://www.genealogienetz.de/index_en.html Main German-based genealogy page, in English and German. Info on various regions.

http://lists.rootsweb.com/ E-mail discussion groups by region.  This service ended in August 2023, but the archived materials could still be useful. 

Online pages of various German genealogical associations in Germany (Verein=club and Ahnenforschung=genealogy).  Often they have a list of publications that may give you more localized information.

www.dastelefonbuch.de Online phone book.  Useful if your family came from Germany recently (last generation or two). 

Facebook—if your relatives are recent immigrants to the US, try looking up their names        and location to see if you can make contact with living relatives still there.

5.                German names:

Naming patterns depend on place.  Germans often have more than one given name, just like Americans.  However, in some areas, they were only called by the middle name (Rufname), as opposed to the first name (Taufname), which was for the christening.  If all the sons in a family had the first name Johannes, but had different middle names, you can be sure that Johann is just a Taufname. Look for them by the middle name in other records. (Johann is more often a Taufname, and Johannes is more often used as a Rufname.) One area this is common in is Hessen. 

Patronymics—sometimes this occurs in northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein, in particular).  Instead of a surname, the children add the father’s first name to theirs—Jens Hansson, who is the son of a man named Hans.

Farm names--In some areas of northern Germany, people took the farm name as

their surname.  Sometimes this meant that they changed their surname halfway through their lives.  Men might change their surnames to the farm name that the wife brought into the marriage.

Place names can become surnames

Given names were often the same name as a godparent.

Until the 19^th century, female names often were given a grammatical female

ending.  So, Johannes Römer, but Anna Catharina Römerin.  Same name, just means a female.  Also, names occasionally show other grammatical features depending on use in sentence.  (Der Sohn Sophien=Sophia’s son.  Her name is Sophia, not Sophien.  Compare the across all occurences.)

Some vowels exist in German but not English (ä, ö, ü).  So, Römer became Raymer, Romer, and even Rumer in the U.S., depending on how the English speaker interpreted it. 

Spelling rules are recent.  Some common variations: th=t, c=k, au=aw. Sometimes common Latin versions of names and places were used interchangeably.

“Von.”  Usually this indicates nobility, but occasionally it just means “from.” Andreas von Hitzacker might be a baron with a land holding in Hitzacker, but it might just mean that his family came from Hitzacker and they are poor day laborers.  Coats of arms, by the way, were usually granted to individuals, and were not hereditary.

Many surnames are occupational—don’t assume that all Bauers (Bauer=farmer) came from one illustrious ancestor in one location. 

6.                Language and handwriting.

Get a good German dictionary and a basic grammar explanation, look at the German resources on https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/German_Genealogical_Word_List, and check Don Watson’s web site.  Holidays are sometimes given as dates, and abbreviations such as Xbris (Decembris) are used. You may also need a Latin word list or a French word list, depending on date, location, and religion of the people you are researching.

Don’t panic when you see handwritten records.  There are books to help, such as Edna Bentz’s If I Can, You Can Decipher Germanic Records.  Church records tend to be formulaic.  Look for multiple examples of the same thing in the same handwriting.  You can learn. There is an overview with links to more in-depth tutorials here: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/lessons/old-german-script-part-1 

Sie können es schaffen!  You can do it!  You can trace your German ancestors!  Viel Glück!