German/Swiss Sources of Family Info
NOTE: Many websites in Europe offer a FEE FOR SERVICE to look up info and do research. You can get free info the first time, but they will often charge for subsequent searches.
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European Countries - http://s700.uminho.pt/europa.htmlhttp://s700.uminho.pt/europa.html - click on map of most countries in Europe (including the Balkans) - Find out a bit more about your ancestor's country of origin.
German Genealogy Home Page - http://www.rootsweb.com/~wggerman/http://www.rootsweb.com/~wggerman/ - Click on map of Germany’s 16 Bundesländer (states) and German areas in 7 other countries. Find that elusive ancestor in Germany - a good German research site
German Genealogical Society for Family Research in East and West Prussia - VEREIN FÜR FAMILIENFORSCHUNG IN OST-UND WESTPREUSSEN eV., In de Krumm 10, D-21147, HAMBURG, Deutschland (Germany) - DOES ANYONE HAVE A WEB or E-MAIL ADDRESS FOR THEM ??
“Rheinland” and the “Siegerland” near the cities of Bonn/Cologne and Siegen/Hagen. If you want further information on related topics, please contact this site for research dated back to the end of the 1700's). - Henning Mack
- http://titan.cs.bonn.edu/~mackhttp://titan.cs.bonn.edu/~mack -
- http://imk.gmd.de/docs/ww/hsn/people.mhtmlhttp://imk.gmd.de/docs/ww/hsn/people.mhtml -
Baden-Württemberg Gen Web Page - http://www.rootsweb.com/~deubadnw/index.htmlhttp://www.rootsweb.com/~deubadnw/index.html -
Sachsenhausen is now a part of Wertheim in Baden Württemberg, Germany. Originally this was Franconia, during the time of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1600s. Unterheinriet is near Heilbronn.
Frank Mailänder lives near Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg. E-Mail: - [email protected] - If you are searching for specific names, please use the query form. NOTE: THIS IS A "FEE FOR SERVICE" SITE.
Rick S. Thomas - [email protected] - wrote April 16, 1999: In Reply to: Younker/Junker 1850, Peterstal, Russia-Ukraine posted by Dean Junker on April 11, 1999:
There are records in Germany that can tell you when your ancestors migrated from Germany to the Ukraine. Many came from southern areas like Baden-Württemberg where in the 1700’s land was divided equally among all children. Within 2 or 3 generations people were so land poor they began looking elsewhere to settle. Also in 1732-4, there was a massive drought/crop failure causing thousands to seek resettlement in German settlements in the Ukraine, Russia, and Romania. There is good documentation of exit visas in Baden-Württemberg and you should be able to find your relatives to 1700 with a little bit of effort. You may want to check in the 6 book set of exits from Baden-Württemberg, I think by Burgert.
If you do not know exactly which state your German ancestors came from, but you know the town or city name, try GEOserv - http://www.genealogy.net/gene/www/abt/geoserv.htmlhttp://www.genealogy.net/gene/www/abt/geoserv.html - 5000 listings of German cities/towns
The Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe (in German) - http://www.lad-bw.de/gla.htmhttp://www.lad-bw.de/gla.htm - FAX: (+49-721) 926-2231 or E-Mail: - [email protected] -
LINKS archives (in German) for:
Stuttgart (State Capital of Hesse & Baden-Württemberg)
Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart,
Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 4, 70173 Stuttgart
Tel: (+49-711) 212-4335 (Lesesaal Tel: 212-4320)
Reading Room Tel/Fax: (+49-711) 212-4360
E-Mail: - [email protected] -
Freiburg -
Staatsarchiv Freiburg
Colombistraße 4
79098 Freiburg
Tel: (+49-761) 38060-0
Fax: (+49-761) 38060-13
E-Mail: - [email protected] -
Wertheim -
Staatsarchiv Wertheim
Bronnbach Nr. 19
97877 Wertheim
Tel: (+49-9342) 1037
Fax: (+49-9342) 22338
E-Mail: - [email protected] -
Sachsenhausen is now a part of Wertheim in Baden Württemberg, Germany. Originally this was Franconia, during the time of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1600s. Unterheinriet is near Heilbronn.
For birth, marriage, and death records (Munich aka München)
Briefanschrift:
Postfach 330 360
80063 München
or
Archiv Des Erzbistums Munchen und Freising
Lieferanschrift:
Karmeliterstraße 1
80333 München
Tel: (+49-89) 2137-1346
In 1999, the cost of the Certificate of Death was ca £10.00 (ca U$16.00) plus the cost of a bank order or International Reply Cards (IRC) bought at postal outlets. Some people write first, then telephone and MAY be able to pay for everything after receiving the items. If not, use IRC’s or be prepared to give your credit card number over the telephone or by mail.
Kassel information (in Glückstal Colonies) - http://pppixel.cs.vt.edu/library/boxes/ehrman/glueckhttp://pppixel.cs.vt.edu/library/boxes/ehrman/glueck - all are in English. Glückstal Colonies research Ass’n has LINKS to names in St. Petersburg. Also use "German Russian".
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Buchlertal, Baden - http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/3974/http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/3974/ -
Surname list for over 300 citizens sent to America in 1855 because of poverty and famine.
Links to the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) Region and the State of Baden-Württemberg - http://www.blackforest.vws.net/index.htmlhttp://www.blackforest.vws.net/index.html - (99-06-09 - NOT FOUND) or - http://www.rootsweb.com/~deubadnw/index.htmlhttp://www.rootsweb.com/~deubadnw/index.html -
Polish State Archives at -
http://www.rootsweb.com/~polwgw/Research.htmlhttp://www.rootsweb.com/~polwgw/Research.html - Many Catholic Church books were taken to Germany and now they are in the archives in Regensburg.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GERMANS FROM RUSSIA - E~mail at - [email protected] - WEBSITE: - http://www.ahsgr.orghttp://www.ahsgr.org - Address: 631 D Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1199. Tel: 402-474-3363; FAX: 402-474-7229. Betty Ashley, Brent Mai and Dr. Pleve can tell you whom to contact.
Germans From Russia Heritage (USA) - http://www.grhs.com/http://www.grhs.com/ -
GRHS
1008 East Central Avenue
Bismarck, ND 58501
Telephone: (1-701) 223-6167
Rachel Schmidt, Office Manager @ E-Mail - [email protected] -
KATRIN - [email protected] - said October 02, 1999: I have a list with 12,000 emigrants (1816-1933) from the County of Minden.
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SWITZERLAND - http://www.swisscom.comhttp://www.swisscom.com -
The Genalogical Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Inc. 35 NW Temple Street, Correspondence Unit B-216, Salt Lake City, UT 84150, has extensive microfilms of the records of many Swiss Cantons and the Principality of Liechtenstein.
In Switzerland, contact the Central Office for Genealogy (outside Zurich) at:
Zentralstelle für Genealogie
Vogelaustrasse 34
8953 Dietikon
Schweiz/Suisse (Switzerland)
FAX: (+41-1) 742-2084 or
E-mail @ - [email protected] -
In Switzerland, vital documents (birth, marriage, divorce, death) have only been recorded by official Swiss authorities since 1876. Before that time, the Catholic (Calvinist) and Protestant (Zwinglianic) churches were responsible for registering changes in civil status. Therefore, in order to find the correct source in Switzerland, you MUST know the time period for the research being conducted, and also know which religion an emigrant belonged to in Switzerland. Emigrants rarely change religion upon emigration, so, if in doubt, you can assume that the New World religion is the same as in Switzerland.
The TOWN is where events of importance were registered in vital
documents in Switzerland, and also the Bürgerort / Commune d'origine / Comune di attinenza" (place of origin). Every person who possesses Swiss nationality is, at the same time, also a citizen of a specific town. The town where his/her ancestors used to live is handed down from father to child, and upon marriage (at least in earlier days) a woman would also acquire the place of origin of her husband and at the same time lose her own. The place of origin is of importance, since all vital documents, regardless of the place where the event happened, are recorded there. This has been the case since 1876, and as a rule since 1800 and -in some cases- as early as the end of the 17th century. Therefore, the civil registry office of the place of origin contains all vital records of a family (at least the male line).
Only vital documents connected to the places of origin are registered. Emigrants going overseas in previous centuries very seldom sent back information to update vital documents in Switzerland and keep family registers current. As a result, overseas descendants irrevocably lost Swiss citizenship. In order to conduct the genealogical research of a family, it is just as important to know the place of origin as it is the family name, since there are often families with the same name that have different places of origin.
Material can only, on rare occasions, be found at the Central Office for Genealogy. Generally, it is up to each individual to consult the respective library or archive where the material can be found. Many publications are out of print and cannot be purchased any longer. Please note that the data does not contain references to individual persons. Published material, all independently published family histories or collections, magazine articles, including texts published in the USA are in the “Bibliography of Swiss Genealogies”, by Mario von Moos, 1993, 839 pp., published by Picton Press, PO Box 250, Rockport, ME 04856-0250.
The Central Office for Genealogy has computer data for more than 100,000 references to publications, or works in public or private archives of ongoing genealogical research on Swiss families. This data is constantly being updated. This should avoid doing research which has already been more or less completed. From this information, you might learn in which towns a specific family name originates, if this information cannot be obtained elsewhere. The quality as well as the quantity of the work indexed can vary considerably.
The Central Office also provides a continuously growing computer database in which over 60,000 individuals, including their genealogical connections, are listed. The Central Office for Genealogy has a continously growing genealogical archive containing, among other things, more than 200,000 reference cards, each listing one family, plus a collection of genealogical sources such as microfilms of church books or published sources. It also hosts an extensive library with standard literature and reference books.
The Central Office for Genealogy specialises in research of unknown places of origin and in emigration. A multitude of published lists of emigrants are available as well as remarks which could lead to the identification of emigrants. The Central Office's work comprises mostly migration movements, general genealogical research, and it works closely with professional genealogists, archives, genealogical associations and other specialists. It also has a databank listing, as one example, all town names of the former Prussian kingdom.
The Central Office will accompany people on their research trip for one or several days, be it to visit archives and assist in the research, conduct the research of the ancestors together, travel to the region or place of origin of the ancestors, or simply to assist with translations. When the Central Office of Genealogy is not able to (further) assist, addresses of renowned professional genealogists who can directly be contacted by the individual will be provided.
The Central Office is solely supported by contributions from the "Friends of the Central Office for Genealogy Society" and receives no public funding, so for basic information it charges a fee of US$ 30 (example: extract from the bibliographic file, a search of information available at the Central Office and/or a letter outlining further concrete steps to solve the problem). In case an inquiry cannot, or can only partly, be answered, a portion of the fee will be reimbursed accordingly. To minimize expenses, the fee must be included with the inquiry, either in cash (any currency) or an international money order. More extensive research/work will be billed according to time and cost involved.