Online German Gazetteers and Parish Register Inventories: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:49, 16 January 2019

Definitions[edit | edit source]

Gazetteer: a list of all localities within a given jurisdictions, such as a county, duchy, state, province, or empire. Information provided may vary depending on the original purpose of the publication and may include different government jurisdictions, church parish(es), population-, area,-and tax information, post office, description, history, and more.

Parish register inventory: A listing of parishes within a given jurisdiction. It usually includes information about extant parish registers by type, time period covered, and accessibility.

General[edit | edit source]

German Empire[edit | edit source]

Meyers Gazetteer, see the explanation on the " Germany Gazetteers" page
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

Prussia (Preußen)[edit | edit source]

"Prussia, Municipality Gazetteer" - A complete set of the Gemeindelexikon Preußen (1905) volumes. Browse images by volume. Find this set on the Ancestry website by going to "search"; then enter "Gemeindelexikon" in the "keyword search" field. (Hint: A search in the "title" field brings up only the "Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder", a gazetteer for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.)
Various volumes of the Gemeindelexikon Preußen (1885, 1895, or 1905 editions) are also available on GoogleBooks and the DigiBib (Genealogy.net)

Regional gazetteers and parish register inventories[edit | edit source]

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.

Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen)[edit | edit source]

Ortschaft-Verzeichnis von Elsass-Lotharingen (1880) - locality listing for Alsace-Lorraine
Die Orte des Elsass (List) - Alsace locality list
Deutsch-französisches Ortsnamenverzeichnis - German-French place name list (place names only)
German-French place name list for Alsace (includes higher-level jurisdictions: arrondissement, department, and canton)

Baden[edit | edit source]

Das Grossherzogtum Baden in geographischer, naturwissenschaftlicher, geschichtlicher, wirtschaftlicher und staatlicher Hinsicht dargestellt - Explanation of symbols and abbreviations see p. 768; alphabetical place name list follows.
Die Kirchenbücher in Baden (1957) - parish register invntory
LeoBW Ortslexikon - Historical gazetteer of Baden-Wuerttemberg; does not list parishes for every locality, but provides helpful historical background. Click on "hier" to access place name search.

Bavaria (Bayern)[edit | edit source]

Amtliche Ortsverzeichnisse” (official gazetteers) Download versions available. Several editions, beginning with 1877.
Ortsdatenbank (place name database) - entries include links to articles and nice maps
Bayernatlas regional atlas - modern regional atlas

East Prussia (Ostpreussen)[edit | edit source]

Gemeindelexikon Ostpreussen (1905)
Inventory of extant genealogical sources - arranged by Kreis, includes separate lists for civil registration and church records.

Hamburg[edit | edit source]

Ausführliche Nachrichten über die sämmtlichen evangelisch-protestantischen Kirchen und Geistlichen der freyen und Hansestadt Hamburg (1826) – History of Hamburg parishes with lists of pastors. Click on „Inhalt“for a table of contents linked to images.
Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908) - includes a chapter on Hamburg; read online or download

Hannover[edit | edit source]

Historische Ortsdatenbank - historical place name database
For Ostfriesland, see Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908); includes a chapter on Hamburg; read online or download
Gemeindelexikon (1908) - digitized together with Westfalen and Pyrmont; Hannover on images 1-274

Hessen[edit | edit source]

Kirchenbücher und Standesregister für alle Wohnplätze im Land Hessen (1939) - Inventory of parish registers and civil registration records for all inhabited places in the State of Hessen, in the DigiBib
Historisches Ortslexikon - Database for today’s Hessen
Rheinhessen and Kurpfalz gazetteer/parish register inventory -Table that includes parish jurisdiction, religion, time period covered, and location of the records

Hessen-Nassau[edit | edit source]

Historisches Ortslexikon - database for today’s Hessen
Kassel Church Book Archive – list of parish registers already filmed

Hohenzollern[edit | edit source]

Gemeindelexikon Hohenzollern’sche Lande 1887

Lippe-Detmold[edit | edit source]

Bilingual (German/English) gazetteer - includes parish, civil registration office, post office and more

Lübeck[edit | edit source]

Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908) - includes a chapter on the Fürstentum Lübeck; read online or download

Mecklenburg-Schwerin[edit | edit source]

Gazetteer for Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Mecklenburg-Strelitz[edit | edit source]

Gazetteer for Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Oldenburg[edit | edit source]

Oldenburg Gazetteer - table
Oldenburg Parishes - list of parishes for the 1814 area of Oldenburg, with beginning date for records and expert to contact for help

Palatinate (Pfalz)[edit | edit source]

Die Kirchenbücher der Bayrischen Pfalz (1925) - parish register inventory
Rheinhessen and Kurpfalz gazetteer and parish register inventory

Pommern[edit | edit source]

Posen[edit | edit source]

Posen Gemeindelexikon (1908)
Posen Vital records Inventory of extant records by county and parish

Rheinland[edit | edit source]

Gemeindelexikon 1885 - PDF that can be downloaded in sections
Gemeindelexikon 1885 - DigiBib version

Saxon Duchies[edit | edit source]

Das Historische Ortsverzeichnis von Sachsen (Digital Historical Gazetteer of Saxony) - Covers some areas; in German; the project is based on the “Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon” published beginning in 1813 (13 main volumes plus 5 supplemental volumes), and other regional historical gazetteers.
To determine districts included: Ämterverzeichnis
Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon - all original volumes; read online or download.

Anhalt
Saxe-Altenburg (Sachsen-Altenburg)
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha)
Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen)
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach)
Reuss-Gera (Junior Line)
Reuss-Greiz (Senior Line)
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Sondershausen

Saxony [Kingdom] (Königreich Sachsen)[edit | edit source]

Das Historische Ortsverzeichnis von Sachsen (Digital Historical Gazetteer of Saxony) - in German, project is based on the “Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon” published beginning in 1813 (13 main volumes plus 5 supplemental volumes).
To determine districts included: Ämterverzeichnis
Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon - all original volumes; read online or download
Die Kirchenbücher im Königreich Sachsen - parish register inventory

Saxony [Prussian province] (Provinz Sachsen)[edit | edit source]

Parish register database - can be searched by localities and parishes
Digital historical gazetteer of Saxony (some areas)
Parish registers of the Evangelical churches in the Province of Saxony

Schaumburg-Lippe[edit | edit source]

Ortsverzeichnis Schaumburg-Lippe - Schauburg-Lippe gazetteer; parish listings include links to 19th Century emigrants, census records, pictures, maps, websites.
Ortsverzeichnis Schaumburg-Lippe - Schauburg-Lippe gazetteer; parish listings include links to 19th Century emigrants, census records, pictures, maps, websites.

Schleswig-Holstein[edit | edit source]

Topographie Holstein (1841) - descriptive gazetteer
Gemeindelexikon (1897)
Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908) - read online or download

Silesia (Schlesien)[edit | edit source]

Die Kirchenbücher Schlesiens beider Confessionen (1902) - parish register inventory for the Catholic and Lutheran churches in Silesia
Schlesische Kirchenbücher wo finden - Finding church books from Silesia (alphabetical listing with notes about the whereabouts of the records)

Thuringia (Thüringen)[edit | edit source]

Die Evangelischen KIrchenbücher Thüringens ( Güldenapfel, 1934)

Waldeck-Pyrmont[edit | edit source]

Gemeindelexikon (1905) - included with Westfalen, see the addendum beginning on page 131

Westfalen[edit | edit source]

Gemeindelexikon (1905) - digitized together with Hannover and Pyrmont; Westfalen begins with image 245

Westpreussen[edit | edit source]

Westpreussen gazetteer and record inventory- in German; links to maps; can search partial place names (at least 4 letters required)

Württemberg[edit | edit source]

Evangelical parish database - includes links to other related databases
Hof- und Staatshandbuch für Württemberg (1901) – government directory, several editions can be viewed or downloaded
Hof- und Staatshandbuch für Württemberg (1907)- government directory
Staatshandbuch (1936) - government directory
LeoBW Ortslexikon - historical gazetteer of Baden-Wuerttemberg does not give parishes for all localities but includes history
Directory of Wuerttemberg parish registers (Duncker, 1938)

@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 *[http://books.google.com/books/about/Gemeindelexikon_f%C3%BCr_das_K%C3%B6nigreich_Pre.html?id=EcEzAQAAMAAJ Gemeindelexikon Ostpreussen (1905)]
-*[http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Ostpreu%C3%9Fen/Genealogische_Quellen Inventory of extant genealogical sources] - arranged by ''Kreis''
+*[http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Ostpreu%C3%9Fen/Genealogische_Quellen Inventory of extant genealogical sources] - arranged by ''Kreis,'' includes separate lists for civil registration and church records.
 ==== Hamburg  ====