Getting to the Roots of Your Family - RootsWeb - Ancestry.com

e included in a family register created several years after their deaths. References regarding where
the family came from and moved to are often listed in this type of record. Because the information was
not recorded at the actual time the event occurred, it is still a good idea to verify the information with the
actual parish register entries.
An earlier (mostly 18 th Century) type of family book are Seelenregister [soul registers], designed to
keep track of each church member’s yearly church activity, in particular, attendance at communion
services. These registers are often kept in a family-by-family format, but only living individuals are
included. They are often a “fill-in-the-blank” format.
ORTSFAMILIENBŰCHER
These compiled town genealogy books follow a prescribed format and are easy to use. However, they
constitute a secondary source and need to be used with some caution. Whenever possible, the
information should be verified through the original church records. Many Ortsfamilienbűcher are
available at the Family History Library, cataloged under the town name with the subject heading
“genealogy”. Inventories of printed and on-line town genealogies called Ortssippenbücher or
Ortsfamilienbücher are available at www.genealogy.net/genealogy.
WRITING FOR RECORDS
The Family History Library has nearly complete collections of filmed parish registers for Baden,
Protestant Wuerttemberg, the Grand Duchy of Hessen, and Mecklenburg. About two thirds of the
Palatinate and the Prussian province of the Rhineland have been filmed. In all other areas the coverage
varies greatly.
The original church records are usually kept at the individual parishes. In recent years, many dioceses
and church districts have begun filming the parish registers within their jurisdictions, making film copies
available to researchers at the church archives. Most church archives have a web site with contact
information and possibly a list of filmed holdings.
In the areas that formerly comprised East Germany, churches did not receive any state support during
the Communist era. This resulted in the closure of many historic parishes. It is therefore best to find out
the current parish boundaries and obtain the pastor’s exact address. Several resources are available to
locate this information:
• Go to www.dastelefonbuch.de, enter “Kirchen” in the name field, and the town name in the
location field.
• If this is unsuccessful, try entering the location in a search engine such as www.dogpile.com or
www.google.de and look for an official town web site. Keep in mind that your locality may have
been incorporated in a “Verbandsgemeinde” or civil community, and no longer exist as an
independent town.
• On the town web site, look for church information or a link to a church web site.
• The Web site www.ekd.de includes links to all the Lutheran synods in Germany. The regional
web sites often provide the addresses of the various parishes. If not, one can write or e-mail
them and ask for the address of a particular parish.
• A similar Internet portal for the Roman Catholic Church is found at http://www.kath.de/.
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