Germany and German Ancestry

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Comment by Marianne Szabo on January 13, 2012 at 4:05pm

Found one Scharfenstein in FamilySearch.org

https://www.familysearch.org/search/records/index#count=20&quer...

Comment by C Sharp on January 13, 2012 at 3:59pm

Sharp/Scharfenstein of the Long Valley) German Valley) NJ.

Hi all, The Scharfensteins immigrated to NJ around 1720-1730 from Neuwied German.  I've got the USA line completely but am looking for pointers on locating early German Records.  I know that these records are extremely hard to find but any help would be appreciated.  Thx  Christina

Comment by Catherine Davis on January 7, 2012 at 12:29pm

Audrey--have you found this family in the US so you have a starting place to look for records?  Also, I wouldn't rule out Cordes as a possible spelling.  Or Corts or Cordts, either.  Not only is it possible that a name or date can be carved incorrectly on a tombstone, it is only recently that spelling of names has become constant.  Our ancestors often used various spellings, and in fact, as you go further back in time, they may not even have had a clue how to spell their name because they couldn't read or write.  So, often, the spelling in records was at the whim of the clerk who wrote the record.  In German records, I've often found that d, t, and dt are used fairly interchangeably. 

Comment by Audrey Leonard on January 7, 2012 at 12:04pm

Hi, anyone looking into the Cords family - I THINK from Hamburg.  And no, it is not Cordes which is a different group.  We have a photo of my g-grandmother's (August Wilhelmina Wendt Cords) tombstone which clearly shows Cords as the last name.  G-grandfather was  Heinrich Wilhelm Cords, died before 1895, but that's all I know about him.  familysearch.org has filmed many of the lutheran church records for Baden.  I'm going through one microfilm reel at the library and the info I've found on the Oberdorfs is mind-boggling. There are so many that I'll spend quite a while figuring out who are direct ancestors and who are the branches!

Audrey

Comment by Catherine Davis on December 23, 2011 at 10:03am

Peter, see the familysearch.org page on Germany.  https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Germany.  This has probably the most concentrated list of links to online German records.  Beyond that, go to the homepage of familysearch.org and plug in the persons' names for whom you are looking.  LDS has the most comprehensive availability of church records anywhere.  They have some Catholic church records and whether the church you need is out there depends on whether the individual church priest was willing to let the LDS microfilm; there is no official Catholic Church policy on this.  Or check cyndislist.com for Germany.  Or just try googling "Bavarian church records" or "Bavarian genealogy" and see what pops up. 

Census records are only available in Germany on a limited basis.  See https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Germany_Census for information.

     Beyond these resources, you are not going to find much online.  There is NO master German database anywhere for a couple of reasons.  First, because of the horrible ways that the Nazis made use of private data, the current Germany has very strict privacy rules.  Secondly, there was no Germany, per se, before 1850.  What is now Germany was, at best, a confederation of individual states before 1850, and, in earliest days the states were independent individual kingdoms or dukedoms.  That individuality, combined with the more recent fear of what a government can do with records, means that personal information such as bmds were and are still maintained at the city (stadtarchiv) or state level (staatarchiv) only.

To locate German records, you pretty much need to know the town name and rely on microfilms available through a Family History Center in your area.  You need not be Mormon to use these centers.  They are open to all comers.  You will be charged a small fee per film ($5-6) to cover the two-way postage to and from the main library in Salt Lake City.

Comment by Pete Val on December 23, 2011 at 9:12am

If anyone can help point me in the right direction...I am trying to find any ONLINE services for Catholic Church records for Bavaria or Baden.  I am also looking for ONLINE services for Census records for those areas.  I am looking for 1870 backwards.  Danke!

Comment by Kathryn Hammond on December 23, 2011 at 5:56am

Thank you, 

Comment by Catherine Davis on December 22, 2011 at 10:20pm

Kathryn, according to familysearch.org, Washington DC death info for  a Julius F A Reihardt  (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F7RR-5TY) does not give parents' names but the actual death certificate might.  You can order the film from a family history center to see the death certificate.  Also do you know if he had a daughter Marie m. to Otto Stadtler?  There is a marriage record of a Marie, father __Reinhardt, mother Pauline in Michigan in 1890 (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-12115-115193-44?cc=145...)

Death Date:	18 Feb 1886
Death Place:	Washington Dc, 725 8th St Se
Age:	61
Birth Date:	1825
Birthplace:	Germany
Occupation:	Physician
Race:	White
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:
Father's Name:
Father's Birthplace:	Germany
Mother's Name:
Mother's Birthplace:	Germany
Indexing Project (Batch) Number:	B01130-3
System Origin:	District of Columbia-EASy
Source Film Number:	2135788
Reference Number:	cn50662

Comment by Kathryn Hammond on December 22, 2011 at 8:16pm

I am looking for information on Dr. Julius F Reinhardt.  I know he graduated from Julius Maximilian University in Wurzburg, Bavaria (Germany) in 1849. This is the 1st lead I have gotten on him for Germany.  On the US Censuses, he lists Bavaria as his place of birth.  He was born around 1825.  His wife's name was Pauline.  He married in Germany, but came to the US In the early 1860's.  I have located him in Philadelphia, Baltimore and DC.  I would like to find his parents names, the maiden name of his wife and any other relatives he may have had.

Comment by Catherine Davis on December 3, 2011 at 9:30am

Connie,

LDS has filmed many German records but to use the films you first need to know a town name.  But, they have also indexed many records (they just added a large group from Germany to what was already out there) at familysearch.org.  If you haven't already done this, you can search the database by person's name.  There are digital images of some records attached to the index, but it always tells you the film # from which the info came, so you can get to the original record on film if you find an ancestor in the index.

American death records may give the name of the town of birthplace.  On the other hand, they may just say "Germany," but it is always worth a look.  Look for death records for all your ancestors because families often lived near each other and it may be a third cousin, twice removed who gives you the lead to the town.

Geneanet.com is a European site where people put their family trees.  The family tree part is free to use.  You might get a lead here if someone researching your family.

It will be somewhat tedious to do, but you could work through all the different links on https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Germany#New_portal_for_G....  Some of these links on this page will lead to other links, some of which are searchable databases of state records, etc.

As far as I know, Germany as a nation--as opposed to the individual state databases that are listed on the above familysearch website--has  no major search sites, although there is a site currently being built that may have church records in the future.  I haven't spent enough time trying to translate it so am not sure if it will eventually give individual records or just be a list of the types of records each church has, but I think it says that digital images of individual records will eventually be available for a cost.  http://www.kirchenbuchportal.de/inhalt.htm

You can also try looking in some of the online German phone directories to find if your surnames tend to hover around a certain area or areas.  If so, these might be places to start since it may indicate that a family has been in an area for a long time.  You might also want to contact one of the people you find in the phone book to see if they might know of the family for whom you are searching.  Just type German phone directories into your brower's search routine.

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