International Institute of Genealogical Studies

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

Optional Print Course Material: German: Locating Places in Germany

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

All genealogical research is ultimately local in origin. Our ancestors lived in specific places, and the records about them were usually created in those places where they lived. Even records of larger jurisdictions, such as at the national level (e.g., census records), were generally written by officials in the specific place where a family lived. Further, it is through a family's location that we, in part, identify them. Not only is it important to know a person's name, birth date and relationships (parents, spouse, children), but also the place where a person lived (or was born, married, or died). All of these elements are necessary to fully, and uniquely, identify a person. 

The geographic aspect of genealogical research is even more important for Germanic ancestors than it is for research in other areas. Some key records for family history research in countries outside of Germany were created at the state, provincial, or national level (such as military or census records). That is seldom the case with German ancestors. Virtually all the key records about German families were created at the local level, in the town or parish where they lived. A few were created at the district (like a county) level, but virtually none at higher government jurisdictions. Therefore, locating places in Germany is an important aspect of successful German research. For researchers, this begins with learning the correct place where a German immigrant came from; his ancestral home. From there it is essential to learn the parish where the family attended church. As research progresses, you may find persons married into families from other areas. Those locations must also be identified, so that appropriate records can be searched. The primary tools for such research are gazetteers. They will be the focus of this course. However, important aspects of German jurisdictions are also necessary to understand, as is the ability to read, and understand, place names which may not be familiar to an English or French-speaking researcher. 

Course Length: 7 weeks

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

1. Printed Course Material: German: Church 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. 

Regardless of whether German families were living 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.

The vast majority of Germans, historically, belonged to one of three major Christian denominations—the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, or the (German) Reformed Church. The practice of keeping registers of church ordinances in German areas began with the Lutheran Church in the mid-1500s; the Catholic Church followed soon, generally shortly after the Council of Trent in 1563; and, Reformed churches generally began during the next 50 to 80 years. 

Until the implementation of civil (government) registration of births, marriages, and deaths, generally in the 1870s, there are usually no other records in German areas that were designed to record virtually each and every person who lived in a given area. Therefore, for between 200 and 300 years, church registers are the records all German genealogists deal with.

This course provides detailed discussion of the use of German church (often called parish) registers. Through the numerous examples, researchers will learn not only the common formats of the key kinds of church records, but also important vocabulary terms used in the records. In addition, search strategies will help students understand how to wring the most possible information from these records.

The International Institute of Genealogical Studies is extremely pleased to be able to use, as the primary reading material for this course, an outstanding book on this subject, authored by Kenneth L. Smith, <i>German Church Books: Beyond the Basics,</i> Rev. ed. (Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 1993). We express our deep appreciation to the publisher for making an electronic copy of this text available for our students.

Because the course reading material is not proprietary to the International Institute's course, access to the electronic text online will only be available during the term of this course as usual, but will NOT be accessible for printing. Since this reading material is an important reference tool which students will want to refer to frequently while conducting research in parish registers, the printed version is compulsory for this course. 

The course instructional material will primarily serve as a guide to the content of Smith’s material. In addition, it will present some brief supplemental material, as well as the module assignments.

Course Length: 7 weeks

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 German courses, you've learned primarily about researching this ethnic group as a whole—mainly, the similarities virtually every researcher of German-language ancestors will encounter. In this course, you learn more about the contrasts that led to differentiations within ethnic German research depending on time period and geographic place. This course places a value on both history and dates as well as people groups. 

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

Optional Course Print Materials: German: Germans Outside of Germany

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

Since the 19th century (or earlier), Germans have migrated to other countries to make their home. Whether  evacuating for the sake of safety (seeking asylum), moving into countries where other family members resided, or simply emigrating to remove themselves from the homeland, researching these individuals means considering various types of records found in the country they called home.

This course explores the German migration out of Germany as late as the mid-20th century and includes settlements in some locations as early as pre-15th century while others will focus on 19th and 20th centuries only. The countries addressed are those where significant populations of Germans have been or are still found. In some locations, the region has not been perceived as “German” (i.e., German has not been an officially recognized language). These locations will include the UK and Ireland; Oceania (Australia and New Zealand); North America (US, Canada, and Mexico); European Countries (where German is not an official language); Latin American Countries (Central and South America and the Dominican Republic); Africa (select countries with German populations, past or present), Asia, and India. We'll explore why Germans left Germany and where they went. 

We'll explore records that document your German ancestor in their new homeland as well as where to find these records. We'll also explore German communities and the records they left behind, including histories, periodicals, and compiled sources. Each module ends with resources for social media websites and groups where researchers may connect with their German relatives. 

Course Length: 8 weeks

Optional Print Course Material: German: Naming Practices

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

There are a number of common misconceptions about “German naming patterns” including that they follow a prescribed formula in the majority of, or all, families. This may be true regionally (e.g., in a particular region of Germany and, in some cases, carried over into the country where the family emigrated to, if that happened), but there is no hard and fast rule and to expect that is potentially damaging to research. 

This course will examine the various types of naming patterns, name variations (for surnames and given names), regional influence on names, occupational influence on names, period influence on names (e.g., names changed from German to French during the Napoleonic years), the influence of the Church on baptismal names, the phenomenon of the “Naming Day” and its effect on the name used in a person’s adult life, and the commonality of reversing first and middle names during a person’s life. Spelling issues on documents, the use of signatures and occupations to separate people with the same name in a given community, and the phenomenon of Anglicizing names when people migrated will all be taken into account.

Optional Print Course Material: German: Compiled Sources

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

German genealogical research should include a careful and detailed review of “compiled sources.” Compiled sources are simply defined as the findings of previous researchers. Today they exist as personal websites, online family trees, genealogical articles in periodicals, book-length family histories, genealogical compendia, and even as manuscript collections. What is surprising to most researchers is that these types of records exist for German families. What is perhaps even more unexpected is that there are millions of Germans and their families named in such records. Moreover, many are reasonably well-indexed, and not all that difficult to access, even for researchers who don’t read German well. 

In this course we will explore various compiled sources including Collections and Databases, Family Histories and Bibliographies, Lineage Books, Periodicals, Biographical and Local Sources. 

Course Length: 7 weeks

Optional Print Course Material: Irish: Understanding Ireland, History and Source Records

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

In no country, more than Ireland, is it imperative that one understands some of the local history, past machination of records, and knowledge of what source records have been created versus what is available. 

This course will discuss the importance of preliminary research in one’s home country and then provide a brief history of Ireland which is useful, if not imperative, in understanding the nature and value of record sources within Ireland. From here, the discussion will be what genealogical records can tell us, with brief overviews of the administrative (civil and ecclesiastical) divisions within the island, and a discussion on Irish place names and family names. 

The course will conclude with a brief discussion on the types of records available for research in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Eire), the importance of understanding maps for the region, and migration patterns. 

Optional Print Course Material: Irish: Archival Repositories

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

This course presents an overview of the archival and repository centres throughout the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland for conducting Irish research. Emphasis is on available records and those held by FamilySearch and other repositories.

We discuss the types of records available at various repositories, their availability, and how to access the source records, online and on-site.

This course builds on preliminary content discussed in the Irish: Understanding Ireland, History and Source Records course.

Optional Course Print Material: Irish: Census and Census Substitute Records

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

The loss of historical census records for Ireland has been devastating. Many censuses still exist; however, they are neither comprehensive nor fully extant. 

This course discusses the importance of census records and their availability for locality and time period. Also discussed are the various census forms and census substitutes (1630-present) which exist for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Various government surveys—of land and people—which act as census substitutes in the absence of censuses are included.

Optional Print Course Material: Irish: Religious Records

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

The course examines the differences between the various forms of church (parish) records in Ireland and in particular between the Roman Catholic Church, to which the vast majority of Irish people belonged, and the conformist records of the Church of Ireland. Which was the official state church until 1869. Different time periods will be covered in relation to:

• historical backgrounds
• content of records
• availability of/access to records
• effective research procedures.

We will also touch on the extensive collection of marriage licenses (1623-1866) and comment on their historical background, contents, value, and availability to researchers.

Optional Print Course Material: Irish: Conformist and Non-Conformist Church Records

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

The course examines the differences between the various forms of church (parish) records in Ireland and in particular between the conformist records of the Church of Ireland and those ecclesiastical institutions which did not conform to the standards of the day. 

We will discuss time periods, historical backgrounds, contents of records, availability of records, access to these important record collections, and effective research procedures. Emphasis will be primarily on pre-1864 research problems in Ireland where parish registers should be used as major sources of information. These contain vital genealogical elements such as baptism/christening, marriage and death/burial entries. When used with records such as wills and deeds, parish registers can help build fairly complete family groupings. 

We will also touch on the extensive collection of marriage licenses (1629-1864) and comment on their historical background, contents, value, and availability to researchers.

Course Length: 7 weeks

Life events (birth, death, and marriage) became vital source records for genealogists with the implementation of civil registration. In Ireland, due to political issues, civil registration began in two stages. This course will discuss civil birth, marriage, and death records from 1864 and non-Catholic/secular marriage records from April 1845.

In addition, the course discusses the contents, availability, how the documentation changed over time, the limitations and advantages of civil vital records, and effective research strategies for using this record type.

Optional Print Course Material: Irish: Civil Registration

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

One of the most important source records that most genealogists use, but often concentrate too heavily on, are the vital records created upon introduction of civil registration in search countries. In Ireland this happened at two different times depending upon the type of record and the ecclesiastical division. The course will discuss civil registered record types of birth, marriage and death in post-1863 Ireland and Protestant marriage records which begin from 1845. 

In addition, the course will discuss the contents of these records, their availability, how the information documented has changed over time, the limitations and advantages of civil vital records, and effective research strategies for using this record type.

Optional Print Course Material: Irish: Land Administration Records

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

Often genealogists get frustrated with land and deed records because of the difficulty in their access and use. In addition, they fail to understand their indirect overall significance which is one of correlating and connecting members of family groups, pre-emigration identity, as well as parentage and origins of the emigrant. This course discusses these issues and others of value primarily from 1708 in Ireland, the historical background of land tenure, the general contents of these records and their availability, as well as strategies for effectively researching and accessing this record collection and some wonderful collections that precede 1708 dating from as early as the 12th century. 

Many of the sources referenced are available through FamilySearch. If you are not already familiar with the FamilySearch website or the FamilySearch Catalog, it is suggested that you become so as a great deal of your success with your research will be dependent upon use of their collections.  

Optional Print Course Material: Irish: Major Printed Sources

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

Printed sources can be contemporary to the period documented and often more reliable than later secondary sources for the same period. However, few are indexed and there tend to be large periods where even the printed sources themselves are not available. In Ireland, where many of the records have been destroyed or lost, what have survived are sporadic and incomplete. Contemporary-period printed sources by way of newspapers, directories, journals and local histories, occupational and society records often help establish human life events that may not be documented anywhere else. This course will discuss these printed sources available, information contained and their value, the challenges in accessing or using these records, locating source records, and discussing available bibliographies, indexes, and abstracts.