Finding Aids for German Records

Once you have learned the name of the town in Germany where your ancestors lived, there are several questions you need to answer:

1. Are there several towns with that name, and if so, which one is the correct one?
2. If you are looking for civil registration records (anything after 1876, and in some states sooner), where is the Standesamt (civil registry office) located?
3. If your ancestor was Lutheran and the town does not have its own Lutheran parish church, where is the church that would have records for the town?
4. If the Lutheran church has placed its records in archives for safekeeping, which archives have jurisdiction for the area?
5. If your ancestor was Catholic and the town does not have its own Catholic parish church, where is the church that would have records for the town?
6. If the Catholic church has placed its records in archives for safekeeping, which archives have jurisdiction for the area?
7. Are any of these records microfilmed and/or digitized by FamilySearch?
8. Are any of these records available online through other repositories?

Some of these questions will be answered in the Wiki Germany province page for your province in Germany. This article will teach you about some geographical reference aids that might also help you.

Are there several towns with that name, and if so, which one is the correct one?

Two great online gazetteers will help you find details about any location in Germany: MeyersGaz Online Gazetteer and Kartenmeister. Here are two online classes that will teach you how to use these: Meyer's Gazetteer Now Online, Indexed and Fully Searchable! and Finding Places in the Former German Areas of Poland Using the Online Gazetteer Kartenmeister.com

First Use Meyers Gazetteer

Once you know the town name you need, the other facts you need are contained in Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs, the gazetteer on which the FamilySearch catalog for Germany is based. This covers Germany as it existed in 1871, recently unified from its former existence as many small countries.

• Use MeyersGaz, the digital gazetteer, to find the details you need, particularly the Kreis (county) it belonged to, found after "Kr".
• MeyersGaz Help Guide
• Abbreviation Table

Here is part of an entry from MeyersGaz.org. (The whole entry can be studied at Heusenstamm, MeyersGaz.)

The most important facts here are: Heusenstamm is in Offenbach Kreis (Kr). It has its own Standesamt (StdA) or civil registration office. It has its own Catholic parish church. By clicking on the "Ecclesiastical" option, we learn that the closest protestant church is 2 miles away in Bieber.

If you find several towns of the same name, checking each one for the birth record of your ancestor may be needed to narrow down the field.

Kartenmeister

Kartenmeister covers areas of Germany that were given to other countries (mostly Poland) in the treaties following the World Wars First, c Next, find your town in Kartenmeister.com to learn the name and upper jurisdictions that the town became known by after 1945.

Kartenmeister Search Engine To use Kartenmeister, simply enter the German name of the town in the search field.

A Typical Kartenmeister Record The most important information points here are the name of the Lutheran parish, the name of the Catholic parish, and the location of the civil registry office (Standesamt):

• Find the province.
• meyers and kartenmeister
• Hansens parish maps
• Online Tricks

familysearch catalog

• Google
• Province page
• Archion
• Address directory
• Archives
• email the mayor