Germany Websites
Archives [edit | edit source]
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 [edit | edit source]
- French Republican Calendar (Research outline)
- Grotefend calendar book online
- Calendar converter (German)
- The Liturgical Year
- Information on many calendar systems around the world
Colonies [edit | edit source]
Emigration, Immigration, and Passenger Lists [edit | edit source]
- 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 [edit | edit source]
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 [edit | edit source]
- 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 [edit | edit source]
- 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 [edit | edit source]
Regional Collections [edit | edit source]
- 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 [edit | edit source]
- 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 [edit | edit source]
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 [edit | edit source]
- Ahnenforschung.net - German genealogical forum and link list
- DigiBib - Digital Library on genealogy.net
- German Association of Professional Genealogists
- Genealogy Search Engine Mocavo
Geography [edit | edit source]
- Ravenstein Atlas of the German Empire
- Kartenmeister
- Multimap
- Expedia
- Historical maps of Germany
- German States in 1871
German Soundex [edit | edit source]
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.
Heraldry [edit | edit source]
- Ahnen und WappenHeraldry, Nobility, Crests
Language and Handwriting Helps [edit | edit source]
- 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 [edit | edit source]
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 [edit | edit source]
- 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 [edit | edit source]
Geogen Surname frequency, based on current phonebooks
Regional Resources-Miscellaneous [edit | edit source]
| 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 [edit | edit source]
- 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) [edit | edit source]
- 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 [edit | edit source]
| 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. |
| 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 |
| Rheinland (Rhineland) | Rhineland-Palatinate ibliography Eifel region. Searchable. Indexes to parish registers in the Trier region 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 |