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Civil Registration

Overview

Civil registration records are records of births, marriages, and deaths kept by the government. German terms for these records include Standesamtsregister, Zivilstandsregister, or Personenstandsregister. They are an excellent source for information on names and dates and places of births, marriages, and deaths. These records are kept by the civil registrar [German: Standesbeamte] at the civil registry office (Standesamt). Because they cover about 98% of the population and often provide more information than church records, civil registration records are important sources for German genealogical research, especially after 1876 when the entirety of Germany established civil registration.

Civil registration years: Napoleonic period

Areas where civil registration was instituted between 1798 and 1815.

During the Napoleonic time period, many areas of modern-day Germany were invaded and annexed by the French Empire. In annexed areas, civil registration was fully implemented. After Napoleon's defeat, areas east of the Rhine river stopped civil registration and returned to church records as the primary means of recording their populations, mainly because these areas were annexed very late (as late as 1811) and had only been keeping civil records for a few years. Areas west of the Rhine river continued keeping civil registration records, mainly because these areas had been keeping them for upwards of 15+ years. The following list of principalities indicate the time frame civil registration records began, and if and when they ended:

Alsace-Lorraine: 1792
Rheinland (west of the Rhine): 1798
Hessen, province of Rheinhessen (west of the Rhine): 1798
Grand Duchy of Berg: 1806-1815
Kingdom of Westphalia: 1807-1815
Hamburg: 1811-1815
Hannover (parts): 1811-1815
Hessen-Kassel: - 1811-1815
Lübeck: 1811-1815
Oldenburg: 1811-1815

Civil registration years in all of Germany

German civil registration. Red indicates areas that began before 1876. Prussia (green) started in October 1874.}

Between 1850 and 1876, all territories instituted civil registration. The two main time periods were October 1874, when all of Prussia begain their registers, and 1 January 1876, when the rest of the constituent members of the German Empire followed.

The list below includes areas that established civil registration before this time period:

Anhalt: 1850
Hamburg: (restarted) 1866

To learn more about when German civil registration began in individual provinces or states, see German Civil Registration Time Periods.

Herne Stadtarchiv Standesamt Baukau

Determining the Location of a Civil Registration Office

If you are looking for civil registration records online:

Research your town name in MeyersGaz.org to find the location of the registry office (Standesamt) at the time of the German Empire. The civil office is indicated by the abbreviation "StdA." This is the Standesamt location you will use when searching for civil registration records anywhere in the FamilySearch Catalog, FamilySearch Images, and other websites like Ancestry.com. Records in archives will use this location prior to the consolidation of registration offices in the 1970s.

If you are looking for civil registration records still in offices in Germany:

Many civil registration offices were merged in the 1970s, so the modern record location might be different than that listed in MeyersGaz. When writing for records, you must first find the modern civil registration office for your town.

To find the current Standesamt, go to the German Wikipedia and enter the name of the town in the search box. An article about the town will likely start with a first line similar to this: "Besse with about 3200 inhabitants is the largest district of the municipality Edermünde..." It is probable that the Standesamt is now located in the larger municipality (in this example Edermünde). The word Gemeinde may also be listed in an infobox at the top right; the location listed with the word Gemeinde is likely the current civil registration office location.
If your town is a larger town, its German Wikipedia page may not state that the town belongs to another municipality because it is itself a municipality. If that is the case, use the town itself as your civil registration office location.
To find the email address of the current Standesamt, google the location along with the word Standesamt (for example, Altgernsdorf Standesamt) and click on the civil registration office or municipality (Gemeinde) website, which should be one of the first results. Then look for the word Kontakt (contact), which is likely to list an email address. Alternatively, it may lead you to an online form you can fill out to submit a request, especially in the case of larger cities.

You may also want to go to Standesamt.com and enter the name of the town the Standesamt is located in today into the Ort search box at the top right. This will pull up contact information; however, the contact info may be outdated, so it must be confirmed by locating the contact information on the official Standesamt or municipality website.

Information Recorded

The information recorded in civil registration records varies slightly over time. Each state used a different format for civil registration. Preprinted forms have often been used for civil registration. In these instances, the form determined what information the record contains. The early French records sometimes give slightly more complete information than the later records. The most important civil records are birth, marriage, and death registers.

Births (Geburtsregister)

Birth records usually give:

the child's name;
sex; and
birth date, time, and place.
father's name, age, occupation, and residence
mother's maiden name, age, and marital status
names, ages, and residences of witnesses
parents' religion is also listed in some states.

Marriages (Heiraten, Ehen, or Trauungen)

Marriages were usually recorded where the bride lived. After 1792 a civil marriage ceremony was required in areas of Germany under French control. In 1876 this law was applied to all of Germany. Most couples also had a church wedding, so records may exist for both the civil and church ceremonies. The civil marriage records may include more information than the comparable church records. When possible search both the civil registration and church records.

Intention to Marry

If you believe a marriage took place but cannot find a marriage record, search records that indicate the couple's “intent to marry.” Various records may have been created to show a couple's intent to marry:

Proclamations [Aufgebote or Eheverkündigungen] were made a few weeks before a couple planned to marry. The couple may have been required to announce their intentions in order to give other community members the opportunity to object to the marriage.
Marriage Supplements [Heiratsbeilagen] were often filed by the bride or groom to support their marriage application. Information included may document their births, their parents' deaths, and the groom's release from military service. Sometimes the records contain information about earlier generations.
Contracts [Ehekontrakte] are documents created to protect legal rights and property of spouses. These may give the same information as the marriage supplements noted above. They also list property and are usually found in court records rather than in civil registration records.
Marriage Permission Papers [Verehelichungsakten] are documents created in the process of obtaining permission to get married. Some states required prospective spouses to get permission from the local city council or mayor before they could be married. For Bavaria and Hessen-Nasssau many of these files have been microfilmed. They may be cataloged under "court records", "civil registration", or "public records."

Marriage Records

Marriage Registers (Heiratsregister). Civil officials recorded the marriages they performed, usually on preprinted forms bound in a book and kept in the civil registration office. Marriage registers give:

the date and time of the marriage
bride's and groom's names,
bride's and groom's ages, birth dates, birthplaces,
bride's and groom's residences, occupations, and
whether they were single or widowed.
the parents' names, residence, occupations, marital status, and whether they were living at the time of the marriage. Note: starting in 1922 the form does not record this information.
witnesses' names, ages, and relationships to the bride or groom
the couple's religion, especially after 1874.

Certificates (Heiratsscheine). Some couples were given a marriage certificate or a book [Stammbuch] with the marriage entry and space for entering children's births. The certificate or book may be in the possession of the family or the civil registrar.

Deaths (Sterberegister or Totenregister)

Death records are especially helpful because they may provide important information on a person's birth, spouse, and parents. Civil death records often exist for individuals for whom there were no birth or marriage records.

Early death records usually give:

the name of the deceased and
the date, time, and place of death
the age, birthplace, residence, occupation, and marital status of the deceased
the name of the parents or spouse and their residences
the informant's name, age, occupation, residence, and relationship
the person's religion.

Information about parents, the birth date, the birthplace, and other information about the deceased may be inaccurate, depending on the informant's knowledge.

Stamps and Notes on Civil Registration Records

The following table illustrates which types of stamps and notes may be found on which type(s) of German civil registration records.

Record Type	Birth Stamp	Marriage Stamp	Divorce Note	Death Stamp	Paternity Note	Name Change Note	Correction Note
Birth		✓		✓	✓ (note)	✓	✓
Marriage	✓ (of children)		✓	✓	✓ (paragraph)	✓	✓
Death							✓

Stamps and notes are added after the event the record is created for—as such, these additions refer to events that took place later. The exception is the paragraph space on the second page of a civil marriage record, which is filled out at the time of the marriage and contains information about any premarital children of the now married couple.

For more information about stamps and notes, see the "Reading German Civil Birth, Marriage, and Death Records" Instruction sheet on the Germany "How to" Guides FamilySearch Wiki page.

Locating Records

Civil registration records were kept at the local civil registration office (Standesamt). Most civil registers are still located at the local civil registration offices, but some are collected in city or state archives. To determine which civil registration office to contact, see the Determining the Location of a Civil Registration Office heading.

Since 2009 birth records have been public after 110 years, marriages after 80 years, and deaths after 30 years. However, in places where records are online, the records recently made public may have not yet been placed online.

A direct relationship to the subject of the record sought should only be required in cases where the required time period has not yet elapsed. Even if there is no direct relationship, the records may be accessible if it can be shown that all "participating parties" have died at least 30 years ago. Participating parties are both parents and the child in birth records, and both spouses in a marriage record.

Ancestry

Ancestry.com has many German civil registration records, which are indexed and searchable. A list of the German civil registration collections can be found in Ancestry's Card Catalog.

FamilySearch Catalog

FamilySearch has microfilmed many civil registration records. To find civil registration records in the FamilySearch Catalog, search the Place Search under:

GERMANY, [STATE], [TOWN] - CIVIL REGISTRATION

Alternatively, type the location of your civil registration office of interest into the FamilySearch Catalog's "Keywords" search box.

The collections of FamilySearch continue to grow as new records are microfilmed or digitized. To view some digitized records you may need to be at a FSC or Affiliate Library, or be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

FamilySearch Images

FamilySearch Images also contains German civil registration records, which may be found by searching the location of your civil registration office of interest in Images.

Other Online Records

Additional online records for the individual provinces of the German Empire are listed on the civil registration page for each province:

Independent From Prussia

Prussia (Preussen)

Thuringia (Thüringen)

City-States

Writing for Records

Civil registration records from many towns and states are available on microfilm or online. However, many civil registration records, especially those created in 1876 or later, are still only available in the local civil registration office or archive in Germany that has the originals. Civil birth, marriage, and death records may be found by contacting or visiting the local civil registration office or archive.

To e-mail the municipality to verify that the civil registry for your town is there.
1. Consult this address list for the exact contact information, which should include an e-mail address: Standesamt.com. In the horizontal menu bar, hover over "+registry office" or "+Standesämter", then the name of the modern state, for a drop-down list of links to modern cilvil registrars.
2. Send a message asking whether you have the correct office for your ancestors' home town. You can also use e-mail to request records and arrange payment. Use the German Letter Writing Guide to write your questions in German.

Civil officials will usually answer correspondence that is written to them in German. Your request may be forwarded if the records have been sent to an archive or central repository.

How to write a letter: Write a brief request in German to the proper office using the German Letter Writing Guide, which includes detailed instructions for what to include in the letter, along with German translations of the questions and sentences most frequently used.

City Archives

Large cities have many civil registration offices. Most civil registers are still located at the local offices, but some are collected in city archives. Many German cities have established archives to preserve their older records. Often they cannot handle genealogical requests, but they can determine whether specific records are available for you or your agent to search.

State Archives

Duplicate registers from some towns are kept in state archives. For more recent records and for those not yet microfilmed, you may write to the state archives of Germany and request searches of the records. See Germany Archives and Libraries.

You may also find archive inventories that describe the record-keeping systems and available civil registration records in Germany (see Germany Archives and Libraries). These and other guides are found in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

GERMANY - ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES

GERMANY, [STATE] - ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES

That is, search for your German state in the FamilySearch Catalog and click on the "Archives and Libraries" heading in the search results.

After determining who has jurisdiction over the records for the time period you need, write a short request to the proper office. Be careful not to ask for too much when writing to German archives. They can briefly answer questions about the records in their collection but are often reluctant to do research in these records. You may have more success if you ask for a referral or a list of local researchers you could hire to search the archive's records. See German Letter Writing Guide for more information about writing to offices in Germany.

Deaths of German Citizens Abroad

1939-1955 Germany, Deaths of German Citizens Abroad, Registers from Berlin Standesamt 1, 1939-1955 at Ancestry - Index and images ($)
1939-1945 Deaths, German Occupied Territories, 1939-1945 at Ancestry - index & images ($); countries covered in the collection include the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and areas of Ukraine, Russia, and the Baltics designated 'Eastern Territories' in the records.

Records from Towns Now in Poland

Extracts of German records requested from towns now in Poland will be written in Polish. Addresses of civil registration offices in formerly German areas of Poland, along with an inventory of available German civil registration records, are found in:
Brόzka, Tomascz. Deutsche Personenstandsbücher und Personenstandseinträge von Deutschen in Polen 1898 bis 1945. Frankfurt a/Main und Berlin: Verlag für Standesamtswesen, 2000. ISBN 3-8019-5674-1. (B2 Floor, call number 943.8 V23b).

Germany Civil Registration: Difference between revisions