by Peter Towey

If you have a placename, check Meyers Ortslexikon: a gazetteer of the German Empire in 1912.

It identifies virtually every place, even hamlets and individual houses.

But in Gothic script and heavily abbreviated!

The commas and semi-colons are particularly significant!

Meyers is on ancestry.co.uk but the explanation is in the introduction in German & Gothic script!

Ahrenfeld Kr. Hameln, D., Pr. Hann., RB.Hann., Kr. Bkdo. Hameln, AG. Lauenstein, StdA. P Grossoldendorf, E 4,7km Osterwald; 174 OE., T.

Ahrenfeld in Kreis Hameln, a village in Prussian Province of Hannover, Regierungsbezirk Hannover. The Kreis and district military office are in Hameln. The Court is in Lauenstein. The Standesamt and Post Office are in Grossoldendorf. The railway is 4.7km away in Osterwald. The population is 174 and there is a post and telegraph office.

Prussian Provinces of East & West Prussia, Pommerania (part), Posen, Silesia and Brandenburg (part) are now in Poland, Russia or Lithuania.

Virtually all placenames were changed.

A useful site to find the new name is www.kartenmeister.com based on a 1905 gazetteer. It provides the current and previous names, provinces; population in 1905 and the different parishes and Standesamts.

Each state had different laws on keeping records.

But as records are held locally you do not need to look too far.

Civil Registration started at different times: 1790s to 1876 – and Austria not until 1939!

Useful records not the same as in UK and vary locally.

Helps to learn some German!

German script too is a problem but can be overcome!

Civil Registration Office is the “Standesamt”

Pre 2009 only direct descendants could see any certificate.

Since 1st January 2009 you can see births after 110 years, marriages after 80 years & deaths after 30 years.

Certificates are usually transferred to local archives annually and have to be indexed there.

Note that information differs from place to place and time to time.

Places formerly in France like Alsace-Lorraine and parts of the Rhineland have detailed French-style certificates but in German.

No indexes available so have to write to Standesamt to ask where the records now are.

There are particular difficulties where the present German Land boundaries do not coincide with historical States.

For example the Land of Rheinland-Pfalz covers a number of different former States.

Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz is in the throes of co-ordinating the civil registration records of the Land from the late 18th century.

Should be available there from 1st November 2014 on Wednesdays! Write first!

In most cases births, marriages and deaths are cross-indexed in the Standesamt.

The registrar usually requires eg proof of age when given in marriage or death certificates; and of marriage when given in child's birth; etc.

Those supporting documents are often also held at the Standesamt but need to be asked for specifically.

As in England should go back to 16th or 17th century.

Held in different places depending on the area.

Best to contact a local archive for advice.

Registers are much more informative than in UK.

Protestant can be Lutheran, Reformed or Evangelische and registers are in German and the old script.

Roman Catholic registers are in Latin and Italic script.

Baptism register is Taufregister

Marriage Register is Trauregister

Burial Register is Begräbnisse

Death Register is Sterbregister

Confirmation Register is Konfirmationregister

Write/e-mail the local archives to see where the church registers are held.

Meyers should say whether there was a Protestant or RC parish in the place.

If not there find the denomination in the nearest place.

Best to write in German.

Once you have found the immigrant in the parish registers best to employ a local researcher to continue the research.

Now some registers becoming available online - often just pictures without indexes.

LDS Church familysearch.org has a large number.

Ancestry seems to just have copies of the LDS records.

South Baden on www.landesarchiv-bw.de

German Evangelische Kirche website www.kirchenbuchportal.findbuch.net

Roman Catholic Diocese of Passau, Austria, at http://matricula-online.eu

No equivalent in UK.

From 1871 records of everyone living in every district.

Kept in Einwohnermeldeamt but some now in local archives.

Check whether open to the public.

In some former States similar records are much earlier eg Saxony from c1820. Check!

German national censuses do not include individual details.

Before 1871 there are many censuses held by different states and cities. The information varies.

Check what there may be in your area.

There are particularly good series in Mecklenburg; Lübeck; Schleswig-Holstein (when Danish before 1865) and parts of Hannover (1852).

Prussian and German Army and Navy records destroyed in Battle for Berlin 1945.

Until 1919 the Bavarian Army was separate and their WW1 soldiers’ details are now on ancestry.co.uk.

Other armies’ records survive before 1867: Baden, Brunswick, Hanover; Hesse (parts), Mecklenburg & Württemberg.

Army and Navy Chaplains kept own Church Registers. Also in Garrisons.

Bavarian Army 1914-1919 on ancestry.co.uk.

Duchy of Oldenburg Army Officers and Officials service records 1775-1867 on ancestry.co.uk

Possibly others in local archives – check!

The local FHS has indexed and published the Garrison Church Registers for Hanover 1690-1811 and 1816-1867.

These provide the (children’s) baptism, marriage and burial records of soldiers of the Hanoverian Army in that period.

The gap is largely covered by the records of the King’s German Legion at TNA and indexed in the AGFHS Name Index.

The German Government published Ranglisten – equivalent to the British Army Lists - from 1871.

Officers only but record medals and orders awarded.

“Grundbuchblatter” = Military Personnel files 1780-1919 should survive for all parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Organised in alphabetical order by Province of the Empire.

After WW1 and the break-up of the Empire, the relevant files were passed on to the successor State.

They should be available in the archives of those States or their successors.

Berlin directories 1799-1943 can be searched online gratis at adressbuch.zlb.de

More informative than British directories and in a complete run!

Hamburg and district directories 1690-1990 and telephone directories from 1881 can be searched by name at agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de/subhh-adress/digbib/start

Most German cities should have their own directories held in their own libraries.

“

Also called Dorfsippenbücher or Ortsfamilien- bücher.

List everyone who ever lived in the parish , village or town with details and relationships.

1,000s exist and more are being published all the time.

Often available (if still in print) from local FHS.

Some are now online - see www.genealogienetz.de under “Local Heritage Books”

German from 1870 to 1919; French before and after.

Records are held under the French system in Mairies.

Now included in French Départementes of Haut Rhin, Bas Rhin, Meurthe et Moselle and Moselle.

E-mail mairie in French for individual certificates – often several pages and free!

Most French civil registration records now free on line – but Alsace-Lorraine not well covered!

Some German records destroyed; RC records more likely to survive.

Write in Polish to relevant Polish archives to find out what records survive and where.

Some civil registration and church records brought back to Germany after territories lost after WW1. Less survive for lands lost in 1945.

Was capital and main port of East Prussia.

After WW2 became Russian enclave.

All the inhabitants were removed and the place names changed.

There are no historical records there and enquiries will not be answered.

Understand LDS Church has copies of parish registers and civil registration.

Other records are held in Prussian Privy Archives in Berlin.

From 1808 parish priests there required to keep registers of all families in parish. Still kept.

Difficult to read but very detailed.

Should be able trace everyone from parish to parish to mid 18th century.

Ordinary parish registers go back much earlier.

Not just RC or Protestant families included.

LDS Church has copies of many of them.

Run by the “Verein für Computergenealogie”.

Use their “Metasearch” facility.

Links to most German family history societies.

Many Ortsfamilienbücher – all fully indexed.

Family historians’ research interests.

Indexed Directories.

60 mailing lists some in English or bilingual.

Large number – see genealogienetz.de website.

“Die Maus” of Bremen www.die-maus-bremen.de website has number of databases about people in Bremen and surrounding area.

Check their websites to see what Ortsfamilienbücher are available to buy.

Join if you think your German is adequate – many educated Germans are happy to correspond in English.

“Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels” (GHA). Index for volumes 1-150 in 2011. Ongoing. Copies of some volumes in SoG Library and with AGFHS and all in British Library. Covers titled families.

“Deutsche Geschlechterbuch” in 219 volumes to date. Now on DVD up to No. 197. Copies of books in British Library. Same as GHA but covers the Burgerlich families. AGFHS has DVDs.

Both give very detailed pedigrees like Burke’s Peerage.

For each province or state gives a timeline of constituent parts with outline maps of Counties/Kreis.

Glossary of terms, eg Polish Corridor.

Sketch maps of the German-speaking parts of Europe since Medieval times.

Sketch maps showing the Partitions of Poland and the growth of Prussia.