Intermediate German Records

Note: This course requires compulsory materials to be ordered. The book is available at GenealogyStore.com

1. Minert, Roger P., Deciphering Handwriting in German Documents: Analyzing German, Latin, and French in Vital Records Written in Germany (Woods Cross, Utah: GRT Publications, 2001).

Optional Print Course Material:German: Reading the Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

The primary and often only significant original records for German research are the registers of the local churches where German ancestors lived. This is the case wherever, and whenever, Germans lived, and wherever you are conducting research on German families. Within the bounds of modern Germany, the old German Empire, or in the dozens of other countries where ethnic Germans settled, successful research requires the careful, and sometimes creative, use of church registers. 

However, those church registers are almost invariably written not only in the German language, but also in a style of handwriting foreign to most researchers. Although a different course discussed the German language, it is also crucial to be able to read the handwriting in which the records were made. 

Indeed, prior to the late 1800s, and often even later, any original records in German-speaking areas will be written in the older style handwriting. Therefore, to successfully use the records, researchers, regardless of how well they know the German language, must also be able to read the old German handwriting. 

This course provides a detailed discussion and explanation of the old style of German handwriting, called the Gothic script. Through numerous illustrations, researchers will learn not only the regular appearance of the Gothic letters, but also common variations of those letters and numbers. Assignments to practice writing the letters and key words, and to even transcribe sample documents, will teach you how to succeed with your own research in German records. The addition of various strategies and tactics for reading the records will further prepare you to face the real records. 

Course Length: 7 weeks

Optional Print Course Material: German: Chronological Considerations

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

In the beginner and other intermediate level German courses that you have tackled, you have learned primarily about the things that are distinctive about researching this ethnic group as a whole—mainly, the similarities that virtually every researcher of German-language ancestors will encounter. In this course, you will start learning more about the contrasts that lead to differentiations within ethnic German research depending upon the time period and geographic place. And even though your history teachers may have said they would rather you learn concepts than specific dates, for better or worse this course places a value on both. 

Course Length: 6 weeks

Optional Print Course Material: German: Record Repositories

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

The ultimate goal of students in taking German genealogical courses, is presumably, to be able to search German records for their ancestry and other relatives. Therefore, one important aspect of these courses is to describe the nature of the repositories where the needed records reside. In German areas, as well as elsewhere around the world, there are a variety of both libraries and archives (hence, the usage of the term “repositories”) one may have to access in order to obtain the needed records. 

To be effective in using a variety of German repositories, it is important to learn about them, including their differences, and how to access them. Due to the sheer number of archives, libraries, societies and other repositories, it is not practical, or useful, to try and identify all of them, or even most of them. Each researcher may need a different set of repositories to succeed in research. Therefore, the approach of this course will be to introduce the major kinds of repositories, and how they operate, in a general sense.  

Perhaps the most useful aspect of this particular course are the assignments that accompany each module. They require specific actions by the student to learn about the holdings and rules of libraries or archives of interest. Diligent fulfillment of the assignments is the best way to learn the most in the current course.

Course Length: 7 weeks

Optional Print Course Material: German: Civil Registration Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

Although church parish registers are the mainstay of German genealogical research, in any German-speaking area, civil registration of vital events also is an important part of many research projects. Although civil registration generally began during the 1800s in most German areas, the depth of information in these records makes them very valuable for learning more about people who were registered. 

Most civil registrations of births, marriages, and deaths provide significantly more information than is found in comparable church registers. In addition, they are often indexed and therefore easier to use. Unfortunately, access to such records is often restricted by two important aspects. First, they often begin much later than research needs would require. Second, most of the records are restricted from public access by rights of privacy laws. Learning the value of these records, how to access them, the nature and extent of these restrictions are the core concepts discussed in these lessons. In addition, the civil registration offices often have additional records of value to the German genealogist. They may be used less frequently, but a knowledge and understanding of such records may be a critical part of solving and completing some research projects.  

Course Length: 5 weeks

Optional Print Course Material: German: Emigration Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

For North Americans, the most important genealogical record for their German ancestor is often that record which identifies the town where the immigrant ancestor(s) lived before coming to the new world. Since virtually all research in German-speaking countries is local by nature, the name of that ancestral home is crucial to further research into the family's earlier generation.

Most of the time, that home town is identified in records of the country where the immigrants settled. However, sometimes such records don't exist, or they do not name the specific ancestral home. At that point, emigration records are usually the best source for learning this important information. Emigration is the process of leaving one country and settling in another. Whether that process is a long-planned and carefully thought through series of events, or a relatively spontaneous decision to join other friends and family members leaving for other countries, it was, for virtually all German emigrants, a choice they made. That choice, made for whatever reasons, lead to the creation of important records which document no only the ancestral home, but also the life of the emigrant(s), and often some family members.

The German researcher needs to know about the variety of such records, and the sometimes complicated process ancestors were supposed to follow in making such historic changes in their lives. Two major types of records, and several lesser ones, may exist to provide documentation of these literal watershed events in our ancestry. Passenger lists, and permissions to emigrate are excellent sources, when they exist, for documenting the emigrant, and his or her voyage. However, they do not always exist, while locating and using them can prove quite challenging.

Course Length: 7 weeks