Germany Websites

Archives

Also see below:  Church Archives and Contact Information

• Archivschule- Listing of German Archives in the Internet.
  
• H-Net--Humanities and Social Services on the Internet--links to German archives, more detailed on the federal level.
• Archives in Germany - Hanacek (2000)
• Archives in Nordrhein-Westfalen
  
• Geheimes Archiv - Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz
• German Historical Institute Links to German Archives
• Libweb - Directory of Libraries
• Monasterium.net--Archive of medieval to early modern era documents
• Niedersachsen Archives

Calendars

• French Republican Calendar (Research outline)
• Grotefend calendar book online
• Calendar converter (German)
• The Liturgical Year
• Information on many calendar systems around the world

Colonies

• German Colonies

Emigration, Immigration, and Passenger Lists

• German Roots Emigration Website List
• U.S. and German passenger lists and indexes
• Regional Lists and Indexes of Emigrants
• Lists of emigrants from individual towns
• Lists of Germans immigrating to Brazil, in Portuguese.
• German immigrants to Chile
• Wiki Article:Internet Resources for Finding 19th Century German Emigrants

Finding Parish Registers

Priests at each church recorded baptisms (christenings), marriages, and burial events in parish registers. These records help prove birth, marriage, and death, parentage, and spouse names. German parish registers sometimes include move-in and move-out data.

Parish Register Inventories

• Parish Register Inventories
• PDF Archive Inventory- an inventory of localities with the location or archive where the records should be found. Corresponding list of archives named in inventory is atArchive Addresses Please note that in the second column, with the heading of "key" matches the Archive "number" in the first link which contains the database.

Church Archives and Contact Information

• Evangelical (Lutheran) Church Archives--portal to the archives of the various Lutheran dioceses.
• Association of Protestant Church Archives
• EZAB - Berlin Evangelical Central Archive Holdings
• Oberlausitz Evangelical Archive
• Lutheran Parishes Contact Information
• Catholic Dioceses and Parishes contact information
  
• List of Ashkenazic Synagogues

Parish Registers Online

Regional Collections

• Passau Diocese Parish Records at Matricula
• Parish registers of the Bayreuth, Bavaria, Lutheran Archive,($)
• Ortenberg churches Wölpinghausen, Wiedenbrügge, Schmalenbruch, Windhorn, Winzlar, Auhagen and Düdinghausen
• Lutheran parish registers available in the Church Book Archive in Nuernberg
  
• Virtual parish registers and indexes for Brandenburg and Mecklenburg
• Sources for Sambia, the area around Koenigsberg
  
• Historische Masurische Vereinigung(Southeran East Prussia(Masurenland)
  
• List of extant parish registers in Kreis Gumbinnen

Individual Parishes

• Saxony, Bautzen, Church Records, 1699-1915
• Brandenburg, Heegermühle, Church Records, 1664-1824
• Prussia, Pomerania, Labes, Church Records, 1647-1764
• Prussia, Pomerania, Stralsund, Church Book Indexes, 1600-1900
• Wehdem Parish Records

Gazetteers

A gazetteer (Ortzeichnis or Topographie) is a dictionary of placenames. Gazetteers may also provide additional information about towns, such as: population size, the different religious denominations, the schools, colleges, and universities,major manufacturing works, canals, docks, and railroad stations. Gazetteers can help you find the places where your family lived and determine the civil and church jurisdictions over those places.

• FamilySearch: A digital copy of Meyers Gazetteer is in two volumes and is found at: part 1 A-K, FamilySearch Digital Library; part 2 L-Z , FamilySearch Digital Library. See "Step-by-step guide: Using Meyers Gazetteer Online" for detailed user instructions. An abbreviated guide to locating place names and jurisdictions in Meyers Gazetteer is found here.
• The Genealogisches Ortsverzeichnis (GOV)
• For areas east of the Oder-Neisse rivers, Kartenmeister provides church- and civil jurisdictions
• For phonetic searches in the area covered by today’s Germany, use the “fuzzy gazetteer”
• JewishGen gazetteer has several search options, including “contains”. Be sure to change the country and choose a search option.
• Deutsch-Fremdsprachiges Ortsnamenverzeichnis place name changes for formerly German localities as of June 1919,
• Orbis Latinus (1909 edition - English interface) – Latinized place names. Several volumes/editions are available on multiple websites: 1972 four-volume combined set version
• A number of gazetteers and parish register inventories are available in the Digital Library-Geographie, Kartographie, Topographie of the German Society for Computer Genealogy. New titles are added regularly.
• Prussian (Preussen) Gazetteer
• Various volumes of the Gemeindelexikon Preußen (1885, 1895, or 1905 editions) are also available on Digital Library-Geographie, Kartographie, Topographie
• For an extensive list of regional gazetteers and parish register inventories states, click on this link.
• The Historic Gazeetter
• An index of German-Polish and Polish-German localities
• German-speaking Location Databases

Genealogy

• Ahnenforschung.net - German genealogical forum and link list
• DigiBib - Digital Library on genealogy.net
• German Association of Professional Genealogists
• Genealogy Search Engine Mocavo

Geography

• Ravenstein Atlas of the German Empire
  
• Kartenmeister
• Multimap
  
• Expedia
  
• Historical maps of Germany
  
• German States in 1871

German Soundex

Soundex is a phonetic index that groups together names that sound alike but are spelled differently. This helps searchers find names that are spelled differently than originally expected, a relatively common genealogical research problem.

• Ahnenstammkartei des deutschen Volkes Instructions on German Soundex

Heraldry

• Ahnen und Wappen Heraldry, Nobility, Crests

Language and Handwriting Helps

• Leo Searchable German-English Dictionary
• Grimm's Dictionary of the German Language
• German Genealogical Word List FamilySearch Wiki article
• Latin Genealogical Word List
• Glossary of German military terms
• Orbis Latinus Latin Place names
• Archaic Medical Terms (in English)
• Historic German professions
• Translation of Phrases
• German Handwriting
• BYU Tutorial on Old Handwriting
• Reading old German Handwriting
• German-type fonts to download
  

Search Vocabulary

address books - Adressbuecher
archive - Archiv [Kirchen{buch}archiv, Landesarchiv, Staatsarchiv, Stadtarchiv, Komunalarchiv, Kreisarchiv]
calendar of events - Veranstaltungskalender
church(es) - Kirche(n)
civil registration office - Standesamt
community (civil) - Gemeinde , Ortsgemeinde
community consisting of several towns (civil] - Verbandsgemeinde [VG]
Computer Genealogy (on-line journal) - Computergenealogie
culture - Kultur
data base - Datenbank
economy - Wirtschaft
emigrants - Auswanderer
emigration - Auswanderung
emigration research - Auswandererforschung
general - allgemein
illnesses (old terms) - alte Krankheitsbezeichnungen
index, listing - Verzeichnis
Latin - lateinisch
list - Liste
map(s)- Karte(n) mayor's office - Buergermeisteramt
measures - Masse
occupations - Berufe
old - alt
parish office - Kirchenbuero, Pfarrbuero
parish [church] - Kirchengemeinde
passenger lists - Schiffslisten
pastor - Pfarrer
pictures (old) - alte Bilder
place names - Ortsnamen
postal code(s) - Postleitzahl(en) printed - gedruckt
public - oeffentlich public institutions - oeffentliche Einrichtungen
research - Forschung
research associations, clubs - Vereine
search screen - Suchmaske
search term - Suchwort
sources - Quellen
town genealogy - Ortssippenbuch, Ortsfamilienbuch, OFB, OSB

Metasearches and Large Databases with Many Record Types

• FamilySearch.org
• Ancestry.com--patron-submitted name databases, as well as indexes and images of many sources, including vital records, U.S. census records, several important emigration indexes, and passenger lists.
  
• World Vital Records--German
• [1]- contains indexed family trees, surname web sites, and over 30,000 mailing lists
• German Genealogy Databases Search
• Google Biography Search
• German Newspapers
• Online German Genealogy Records & Databases
• Metasearch--one search portal for data in GedBas, Datenbank Historischer Adressbücher, FOKO, Forschungsdatenbanken der Vereine, Online Ortsfamilienbücher, Familienanzeigen, and Volkszahlregister Schleswig Holstein

FOKO-This database allows the family historian to find others who are working on the same families or in the same towns.
GedBas-Anyone can contribute data in form of Gedcom files, or search for information.
Familienzeigen-extracts from birth-, marriage-, and death notices placed in daily newspapers from the last 20 years.
Grabsteine-records tomb stone information of recent origin.
Totenzettel (Memorial cards)
Verlustlisten 1.WK - (WWI Casualty lists)

Names--Surname Frequency

Geogen Surname frequency, based on current phonebooks

Regional Resources-Miscellaneous

Alsace	Alsace GenWeb French Maps and Aerial Photos
Baden	Genealogy in Germany's Black Forest Region
Berlin	Map of Berlin and Suburbs, 1907
Hannover	Osnabrueck area
Pfalz [Palatinate]	Genealogy in the Pirmasens area
Saarland	Inventory of records in the Saar region
Sachsen	Saxony Roots
Schaumburg-Lippe	Family history in Schaumburg-Lippe
Schlesien	Family history Kreis Militsch, Silesia
Schleswig-Holstein	Fehmarn Genealogy
Thueringen	Thueringen Archives

Societies

• Leipzig Genealogical Society
• Palatines to America Society
• Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE)
• Ostfriesen Genealogical Society of America
• American Historical Society of Germans from Russia
• Germans from Russia Heritage Society
• Sacramento German Genealogical Society
• Germanic Genealogy Society (in Minnesota)
• The German-Acadian Coast Historical Society
• Immigrant Genealogical Society
• Orangeburgh Swiss-German Genealogical Society
• Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society
• Southwest Florida Germanic Genealogy Society
• German genealogy resources at the Max-Kade Institute
• Society for Genealogy in Franken
• Science and History Association,Lippe
• The Maus Genealogical Society, Bremen area]

Town Genealogies (Ortsippenbuch or Ortsfamielenbuch)

• An Ortssippenbuch or Ortsfamilienbuch includes birth, marriage, and death data for all persons found in the local records during a specified time period, compiled into families. Sources may include the local parish registers, civil registration records, court and land records, and sometimes published material.
• Online Database of Ortsippenbuch Large country-wide collection.
• Ortssippenbücher and similar sources held by the St. Louis County Library Special Collections Department interlibrary loan or paid search necessary.

Bibliographies of Town Genealogies--Some Searchable Online

Baden	List of Baden-Wuerttemberg Ortsippenbuecher
Bayern(Bavaria)	Ortschronik zu Bayern Genealogy and house chronicles in the area north-west of Munich - parishes around Dachau, NW of Munich. Also listing of surnames found in most parishes of the area. Searchable. Tax Lists - Indexes to tax lists for the courts of Friedberg, Landsberg an der Lech, Mehring, Rauhenlechsberg, Starnberg, and Weilheim for 1612, 1671, and 1720-1721. Searchable.
Bremen	Ortsfamilienbuch Bremen und Vegesack Familiennamenliste Searchable. Die Maus. Searchable.
Brandenburg	Virtual parish registers- for Koeltschen, Kriescht, Louisa, Woxfelde, and Vietz. Searchable. Neumark database and Huguenot pedigrees (Many parish registers in this area have been lost. This data base contains information from many other sources, such as pedigrees, town directories, histories etc.).Searchable.
Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine)	Local history Books for Alsace-Lorraine
Hannover	Bibliography of Ostfriesland OFBs with purchasing information in the U.S. List of Ostfriesland OFBs
Hessen	Ortsippenbuecher at University/Marburg Central Office for Personal and Family History-Institute of Genealogy
Mecklenburg	Local heritage books of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Ostfriesland	Ostfrieslands local kinship books Local clan books in Ostfriesland
Rheinland (Rhineland)	Rhineland-Palatinate ibliography Eifel region. Searchable. Indexes to parish registers in the Trier region Searchable. Ortsfamilienbuch Südlicher Hochwald. Searchable.
Sachsen (Saxony)	Family Books of Saxony
Schlesien (Silesia)	Local heritage books Silesia
Schleswig-Holstein	Familienbuch Suederbarup.Searchable.
Waldeck	Waldeckische local kinship books - List of town genealogies published up to the year 2008
Westphalia	Local heritage book to North Rhine-Westphalia

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