German: Emigration Records

Optional Print Course Material: German: Emigration Records

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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