Familienbuch, Burgerbuch and Ortssippenbuch.

Familienbuch, Burgerbuch and Ortsippenbuch's.

On our Rhineland trip this year (2013) we visited and toured the Evangelische Archivestelle Boppard (the Evangelish Church Archives in Boppard) This depository has microfilms and many books for the Protestant church records in the Rhineland, we were shown their collection of Familienbuchs and were taken down into the stacks where we were shown some of the original church books. A couple of our tour members were able to find some entries for their families, which was exciting.  We were joined by a very interesting local historian from Boppard, Dr. F (we will keep his name private) who has written many Familienbuch's over the last 30 years or so. I asked him if he would take a little time and tell us what all is involved in putting together these books and we had a wonderful impromptu lecture on the subject which was fascinating.

Here is some of what I learned from this:

My prized possession

There are 3 different names these books can be called, a Familienbuch (family book), a Burger book (citizen book) or Ortssippenbuch (inhabitants of a place book).  Of course the first and foremost important things for these books are records from the churches. Without church books you can do nothing.

The two major religions of Germany, Catholic and Lutheran’s records mostly began in the 16th century, about 1570 but these records are sketchy and not too many have survived the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) so books usually start in mid-1600's. Sometimes you may find a couple of Familienbuch's for the same town, this could be because one book was written for the Catholic Church families and the other for the Lutheran church. (If the town has more than one denomination in town.)  We were shown 3 books for the same town, which was the Catholic, Evangelish and the Evangelisch Reformed church records. Also you may find that the books contain records for surrounding villages if this was the parish that a village was part of. (I suggest you use the books by Kevan Hansen'a "Map Guides to German Parish Registers" available in the States. These books help tell you what parish your village belonged to. They also will tell you what microfilm to order from the LDS library in Salt Lake to find your people's church records).

Dr. F has worked on Familienbuchs for the past 30 years. He usually starts by recording the marriages. He then works on Baptisms, matching all children to the correct parents. Of course sometimes the marriage or a baptism of current inhabitants took place in another village, the birthplace town is sometimes mentioned and sometimes not. Death records are a lot harder as sometimes a person’s name may not be mentioned, such as: Wilhelm Mueller’s infant son died today, age about two. The wife of Johann Schmidt died today at age 50. And then there is the problem of recorded ages. He told us that for some reason he has found that people’s ages recorded at death are a lot of times much older than what they really were! If you follow the name of the person who died and you see he was born in 1750 and died in 1815 he should be 65 but they may say he was 80. We asked why that happened and he doesn’t really know but it can be very hard to make sure you have the correct person.

Then there is the matter of Civil Records. This area of the Rhine (left side of the Rhine) Napoleon started Civil Registration in 1798. These records are usually good, written in French and sometimes using a different calendar) but a lot of church records stopped at this time, so there could be a gap in church records of 10 years or so when Civil registration was in vogue. Dr. F. uses these records of course too.

Dr. F also told us that he starts his books not with the oldest books but the ones from the mid-18^th century because of surnames. The early records may not have surnames listed or names are spelled differently. (This led to a very interesting discussion of how surnames came about – too much for me to record here). He also told us that he also uses other sources too, records from the State or City Archives, so that he can tell more than just names and dates of each person, he likes to include occupations, where they lived, taxes they paid and more details of anything he can find. Wouldn’t you like to get one of his books for your family? In regards to taxes, we also sidetracked into why they liked being listed as the top 5 or 10 highest tax payers (this involved politics, voting and more interesting facts).

So, there is a lot of work put into these books and of course they are only as good as the author, which he also reminded us that if you have found a book for your town or see that there is a microfilm made for the book be sure to check the first couple pages to see what sources the author used to write the book. Perhaps it is only the Catholic Church records and you think it is the whole town. Dr. F. said he has heard that sometimes the first couple pages were not filmed by the LDS so on the microfilm it may not tell you what records were used. Just make note of that.

These books are not required to be written by anyone and they are only taken on as a project if there is a willing local historian, author or genealogy society that will work on it. There are a few places to check to see if your town has a book, a couple places that I know are:

Online heritage books

www.online-ofb.de

 

Printed books

 

http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/kategorie:Ortsfamilienbuch

Germany Town Genealogies and Parish Register Inventories on the Internet

 

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Germany_Town_Genealogies_and_Parish_Register_Inventories_on_the_Internet

Also try contacting the St. Louis County Library Headquarters as they have a wonderful collection of German Ortssippenbuchs.

 

You Must Go Home Again

When you are researching your German ancestors don’t forget to mine all the resources from the towns they lived in.  Perhaps before they settled someplace permanently they lived in several states and there were major life events that happened in that town.  Marriages, births, deaths or maybe just a mention in the local paper, these are all things you need to check out for the mention of a past hometown in Germany. 

Your first objective is to find them in every U.S. and State census since they arrived in the country.  This will show you all the places they lived and give you the town, county and state. (Find census images at Ancestry.com or your local library may have a subscription to Ancestry or Heritage Quest, also FamilySearch.org has free access to US census records).   I would then do a Google search for the town’s local Historical Society or Genealogy Society and see what is available on their website.  A lot of these societies are putting indexes and even some documents online. They also give information on local resources, perhaps where the vital records are kept, or links to other resources in the area.  These societies also have a wealth of information that probably is not online. For years people have donated their time to index local records or the people that volunteer there have lived in that town all their life and know many family names.  It is worth the time to contact them.

You may try your local library. Do they have a genealogy section?  Maybe you live near a larger library that does.  These institutions may have collected books or microfilms from other states and counties that are genealogy related and you can find what you are looking for close to your home.

Another great find is to do some searching on Google Books.  I did some searching for Germans in Ohio, and found some great books available on line to read.  One was Franklin County, Ohio history, which gives the founding of the county plus early settlers and hometowns.  So I suggest playing at this site with family names, county names, German immigration etc.  You may have a fantastic find.

The internet makes it easy for us to travel the world from our living room but you also must remember to look for printed items that are not on the internet yet.  You need to work the town they lived in for all possible resources.  Good luck!

Finding Your German Ancestral Hometown in Church Records

In our first blog in this series we gave an overview of different ways to find your Ancestral hometown but one thing I want to go into more depth about is the importance of looking at all church records your ancestor may have created. Especially look for those first immigrants. Where they married in the U.S.? Check the church record for this entry. Many of the early immigrants would have gone to a church that others of German heritage would have belonged to. This makes sense as they wanted to hear their own language and feel comfortable with people probably from their same village or area.

A lot of times in these first marriage documents they may give their hometown. Some cities have early marriage indexes for marriage licenses but don’t stop at these, get the license and see who married them. It should give either a pastor’s name or the dreaded Justice of the Peace (probably no more info if he married them). Then find the church that pastor was at and check the church books. Or if there is no marriage index, you will have to check churches around where they lived. Find them in a census and then start looking for churches in the area where they lived. Maybe the local library or historical society could help you with finding a church more popular with a certain ethnic group.

Also, always check for the children’s baptisms. In some cases they may have asked where parents were from or of course you need to get the sponsor’s names. They could be a sibling of your immigrant or a family friend from the old hometown village, you should research them if all else fails. If your ancestor came as a child and they were born in Germany but in the States by the time they were old enough to be confirmed, make sure to check the church books for confirmations (about the age 12-14). A lot of times it is just a list of names but some pastors asked where they were baptized, so there could be a hometown.

And lastly, make sure to always check church records for death entries too. Not only the civil record (death certificate) or obit will tell a hometown the church record could also say. I have a friend whose gr-gr-grandfather’s place of birth was mentioned in his death entry even though he had been in the country for over 50 years. So you just never know.

Hometown information is more prevalent in Protestant records but by no means should you not look at Catholic records too. They are usually written in Latin but may give you parents’ names if not a hometown. This is one of the most important steps in German research and not to be overlooked.

Happy Hunting.

Resources for Finding Your German Ancestral Hometown

Today I would like to start a small series of postings on German resources and how to find your hometown. Often people say to me: “I know that my ancestors emigrated from Germany and I would love to go on a trip, but I don’t know how I can find their hometowns. "

I was telling my German business partner about this and he offered to write his thoughts on some ideas of where to check for that elusive hometown.

Before you think about doing research in German records have you looked at everything that is available in the U.S.? Have you looked in the local church records where your ancestors went to church? Often at the Protestant churches (especially in death records and marriage records) the Pastor may have written down, from what area or town come they came from. But be prepared that this church book can be written in German. The following page gives you a little bit help with that. http://narafriends-pittsfield.org/gechurch.htm

Also if the hometown or area is not given don’t be upset. Often people from the same area in Germany moved to the same settlement in the U.S. You must imagine what a big step it was to move to a new country by yourself or with your family. To settle next to other family members, friends and neighbors who had emigrated before made the start and life in the new world much easier. You could still speak your mother language, local dialect, keep your traditions and got help with the papers for the government etc. Keep this in the back of your mind and with this knowledge look again at the church records. Where did the other people in there come from? Is there any information given for that? If your ancestors lived in the parish with all these folks, could be that he came from the same area or town. Try to map the towns you find in the church books on a map, to get an idea where the people came from.

Take a look at your local library. Have they got microfilms for the local newspapers, possible a German one from early years. Try to find the obituary for your emigrant. Have you ever taken a look at his gravestone, the funeral home or cemetery records to find more information? What about the death certificate and family bible. Try to find the family member who has the family bible of the emigrant. Maybe this person also has old letters that will you give more information. Don’t forget the probate records.(Kathy: Even for the women too, I found a hometown mentioned in a great-grandmother’s will when she left her clothes to her oldest daughter still living in Germany. Even down to the street address.)

If your ancestors owned land look at the land records of course, or military records, you never know what surprise you will find there. Try also to locate the papers for citizenship and if you can the ship records. Often groups and families from the same village emigrated together. If you are lucky the ship records tell you the hometown and not only Germany, but be prepared always for misspelling in every record. Again, it might be a good idea to research some of the other people on a ship’s record to find where they came from as they may have been your ancestor’s neighbors.

I hope this gives you a fast overview of where you could find information to help you find your ancestor’s hometown.

Resources for Finding that German Town

TO FIND THE KIND OF INFORMATION YOU NEED, turn first to ALL available U.S.
(or other non-European) records for an ancestor who emigrated to America,
and his descendants (starting with yourself and working backward, without
interruption). These include birth, marriage and death records (issued by
BOTH the civil government AND a person’s Catholic or Lutheran church in
America—the church records of the same events are often more detailed than
the civil ones). Don’t limit these just to the immigrant—you might find
his birthplace in Germany specified on the birth, baptismal or christening
records of his American-born children, for example). Look for passenger
departure and arrival records, US military records, US national and state
censuses, naturalization papers, obituaries, probates, and Social Security
applications (for those alive in 1937 or later).

Online, see what you my find by trying the FREE online LDS Family History
Library “Family Search” feature and look up the ancestor in the
International Genealogical Index (IGI) (go to
http://www.familysearch.org/default.asp ). See if you can find your
ancestors in the FREE database searches for the immigrant processing centers
(for the port of New York) of Castle Garden [for immigrant arrivals from
1830 through 1891] at http://www.castlegarden.org/ and Ellis Island at
http://www.ellisisland.org/ [for immigrant arrivals from 1892 to about
1924]. Even if your ancestors came before Ellis Island was opened check it again,

they might have gone back for visit and filled out a passport.

Also online, to see who else might be researching the same names or
families, check the surnames and data posted by others on Rootsweb
http://www.rootsweb.com.

If you are just getting your feet wet in overseas research, I’d also
recommend the following great Web sites (all of which are FREE) to help you
get started in the right direction.
——————————————————————-

1) soc.genealogy.german Frequently Asked Questions List
http://www.genealogienetz.de/faqs/sgg.html#starters

This helpful site answers the following often-asked questions in detail,
among many others:

How can I start researching my German or German-American family?
Can you help me with surname ________________?
Where can I register/find my surnames?
Where is the town/village ___________________?
How can I find out what village my ancestor came from?
How about German cemeteries?
What does my German surname mean?
Is my family from a town with a name like their surname?
How do I write to a German Standesamt, parish, or archive?

—————————————–

2) RootsWeb’s Guide “On the Trail of Germanic Ancestors”
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson26.htm

3) RootsWeb’s Guide “Tracing Your Immigrant Ancestors”
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson15.htm

4) LDS Family History Library Ancestor Search [look up your ancestors' names
(free) in the immense collection of extracted data gathered by the LDS
Library] http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

5) Cyndi Howell’s amazing database of genealogy links, Cyndi’s List (for
Germany):
http://www.CyndisList.com/germany.htm

6) Regional Research in German-Speaking Countries
http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/regio.htm

This should keep you busy for awhile, and if anyone has other helpful hints for how you found your town please let us know. Good luck!

I Can't Go Yet, I Don't Know the Town

“I can’t go yet, I don’t know the town”. I hear that all the time and I agree it is special to be able to walk through the exact town your ancestor did but what if you never find that town? I don’t want to burst any one’s bubble but that is a possibility. Not to say you won’t find it down the road but why deprive yourself a wonderful trip to the country your ancestor came from, maybe even more specific a general area they came from. You still will see some of the things they saw, learn about the culture and see how people from that area lived centuries ago and maybe even make a contact that can help you find that elusive town. Don’t wait until it is too late to go and be able to walk through that village.

That being said, let’s talk about how to go about finding that town. We will kind of focus on Germany but the principles are the same and we may cover other countries in future posts. Essentially speaking, the most critical piece of information needed by everyone who wants to pinpoint their European ancestral origins is the name of the EXACT village, town or city within the State or County of your ancestral country. Without this, your research about your ancestor’s life and family will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. The reason for this difficulty is that European records are NOT usually amassed and made available in one (or just a few) centralized places like archives in state or regional capitals, as more modern records can be found in the US. They are more often in or near the original places of origin—the towns or villages where they were created—and even if they’ve been relocated to central archives of various kinds, they are often still organized within those archives by “LOCATION” name— not arranged alphabetically according to personal surnames.

Therefore, just knowing the surname and the general area someone came from (like Wuerttemberg or Baden or the Black Forest region or similar) is not going to help you much. Archivists are literally not in a position to look under a particular name for births or marriages or deaths in Baden, Wuerttemberg, Hohenzollern (or wherever else) in “the 1800′s” (or any other years) —they would have to know WHERE (in terms of the village, town or city WITHIN Baden) your particularly family members could be found.

Some important clues or details may be at your fingertips, or require some digging; others might take some thought, and even some lucky guessing. When someone asks me for beginning advice on pinpointing a German ancestor, I usually ask if he or she has or can take a guess about ANY of the following information about that person (assuming nothing is known about the village, town or city in which the ancestor was born or resided in Germany):

— the ancestor’s given names and last name (NOT just the family *surname*)

— the ancestor’s father’s name

— the ancestor’s mother’s MAIDEN name

— the ancestor’s wife’s MAIDEN name or any children’s names

— the ancestor’s religious affiliation (i.e., Catholic or Lutheran; if you aren’t sure what it was in Germany, what religion did they affiliate with in the country to which they emigrated?)

— the ancestor’s occupation (again, if you’re not sure what he did in Germany, how did he make a living after emigrating?)

— the ancestor’s approximate date of emigration (at least the year or range of years)

— the ancestor’s ultimate place of settlement in the US or elsewhere

— the ancestor’s date and place of death

These details will be CRUCIAL not only in possibly locating existing records about an ancestor, but in identifying a specific ancestor and helping demonstrate that he/she is not some OTHER person with the same or similar name who was born, married or who died about the same time who has NO RELATIONSHIP to you (the great genealogical nightmare.)

If you don’t have exact details, try to make an educated guess to get the ball rolling. This might be somewhat prone to error, but for other people to possibly assist you, the field of the search needs to be narrowed down as far as reasonably possible. Don’t be afraid to approximate dates of birth, emigration, etc. (This is important, first because not everybody’s ancestors were born or lived in the same era, and secondly, because some people emigrated as single adults, or with spouses and/or offspring, whereas others came with as children accompanying their parents or others. This would be important to know when doing, for example, passenger record research.)

To not make this a long winded post we will continue this in our next post about WHERE to look for these records.