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In order to tell which is your ancestor, you have to start with the information that you know. If you're lucky, you have a birth date in addition to the name of the person you are looking for. Roll the microfilm to the births/baptisms, look for the correct date, and then try to read the handwriting. | In order to tell which is your ancestor, you have to start with the information that you know. If you're lucky, you have a birth date in addition to the name of the person you are looking for. Roll the microfilm to the births/baptisms, look for the correct date, and then try to read the handwriting. | ||
If you don't have a birth date, | If you don't have a birth date, try to approximate a reasonable date of birth. Actually start looking about 15 years before the approximated date and continue looking 15 years after the date because the person<br>may have been older or younger than you think. | ||
When you have located the birth record of your ancestor, the entry normally lists the name of the father and the mother. Once you have located your ancestor, you need to identify the whole family. Scroll<br>through the records looking for the couple you have identified, writing down all the children and their birth dates as you find them. You should find a birth about every two years. When it appears that you have<br>located all the children born to that couple, you can now approximate the parent's marriage date. (Be aware that many first children were born before the marriage of the parents.) | When you have located the birth record of your ancestor, the entry normally lists the name of the father and the mother. Once you have located your ancestor, you need to identify the whole family. Scroll<br>through the records looking for the couple you have identified, writing down all the children and their birth dates as you find them. You should find a birth about every two years. When it appears that you have<br>located all the children born to that couple, you can now approximate the parent's marriage date. (Be aware that many first children were born before the marriage of the parents.) | ||
Roll the microfilm to the marriages and search for the marriage record of the couple. Marriage records normally include the names of the bride's father and groom's father and the town they were from. The occupation of the groom and/or his father's occupation may also be mentioned. If there is not a father's name after the groom, it usually meant that the groom was a widower. So now you get to look for a first marriage, and children of the first marriage. The male name listed after the bride's name can either be her<br>father or her first husband, be careful, you don't want to | Roll the microfilm to the marriages and search for the marriage record of the couple. Marriage records normally include the names of the bride's father and groom's father and the town they were from. The occupation of the groom and/or his father's occupation may also be mentioned. If there is not a father's name after the groom, it usually meant that the groom was a widower. So now you get to look for a first marriage, and children of the first marriage. The male name listed after the bride's name can either be her<br>father or her first husband, be careful, you don't want to mix that up. | ||
Keep repeating this process for each generation until the records run out. If you're totally confused with too many names that are alike, you may want to go through | Keep repeating this process for each generation until the records run out. If you're totally confused with too many names that are alike, you may want to go through all the birth/baptism records and assign each<br>child to a family. Then you'll be absolutely clear who belongs to which family. You are essentially creating your own family book, the pastors did it, so can you. | ||
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[[Category:Germany Church Records]] | [[Category:Germany Church Records]] | ||
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