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- National, State, City, and Church Archives in Germany and Poland
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- Part 1: Making Friends in
Archives
- Knowing the basics about German archives
- How to prepare yourself to visit an archive
- Contacting an archive
- Part 2: The Basics About Germany
- History of the evolution of Germany
- Maps of Germany in history
- Part 3: Records for Research
- Types of original sources that will provide information on your German
ancestor
- How to access the records
- Knowing which records your ancestor may be in
- An example of research using original records
- Part 4: German Archives
- Federal, state and city German archives
- German church archives
- Polish archives, including church archives
- Discovering an archive’s content
- **Case Study: Albertha Agnes
Antonia Lassen
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- Knowing the basics about German archives
- How to prepare yourself to visit an archive
- Contacting an archive
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- Preserve records that are no longer needed for daily business
- Catalog records for easy retrieval
- Make records available to onsite researchers
- Answer correspondence regarding records contained in the archive
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- German archivists generally will not do the research for you
- German archivists will answer questions about their collections of
records and books
- German archivists often will refer you to a local genealogist or
genealogical society
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- Polish archivists generally will do some research for you
- This can be done by writing the National Archives in Warsaw or the Main
Office of State Archives in the capital city of the province (Województwa)
- Addresses can found at http://www.poland.pl/index.htm
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- Ask yes/no questions
- Ask questions which require specific answers about their records
- Ask questions about only one person or family at a time
- Always ask for a cost estimate
- Include international postage and a self-addressed envelope
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- Write or e-mail in advance to reserve a research space
- Be prepared to register and perhaps pay a user fee
- Prepare by finding the archive’s web page or inventory
- Read a summary history of the area from an encyclopedia or book
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- History of the Evolution of Germany
- The German Empire (est. 800 AD)
- The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
- (963-1806)
- Second Empire (1871-1918)
- Weimar Republic (1918-1931)
- Third Reich (1933-1945)
- Divided Germany (1945-1990)
- United Germany (1990-Present)
- Maps of Germany in History
- Europe in 1648
- Central Europe 1815-1871
- The German Empire 1871-1918
- Modern Germany
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- The German Empire was established by Charlemagne in 800 AD. It was a nation covering present-day
Germany, France, Northern Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Western
Hungary, and Switzerland.
- After his grandsons divided the empire it would not exist as a united
nation again until 1871.
- But what about the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation that Otto the
Great restored in 963 and Napoleon toppled in 1806?
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- Second Empire- 1871 to 1918
- Present-day Germany, Northern and Western Poland, Southern Tip of
Denmark, Western France (Left Bank of the Rhine)
- Weimar Republic 1918 to 1931
- Loss of Polish Corridor to the Baltic (Eastern Posen, West
Prussia-Danzig an international city)
- Loss of Alsace and Lorraine to France, Northern Schleswig to Denmark
- Present-day Germany with Northeastern and Western Poland included
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- Third Reich- 1933 to 1945
- Present-day Germany with Poland, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Ukraine, Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Austria, Western Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Romania
- Divided Germany-1945 to 1990
- German Democratic Republic,
Federal Republic of Germany
- United Germany- 1990 to present
- Federal Republic of Germany
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- The Records you need; types of original sources that will provide
information on your German ancestor
- How to access the records
- Knowing which records your ancestor may be in
- An example of research using original records
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- Vital Records:
- Emigration
- School
- Employment
- Citizenship
- Census
- Property
- Taxation
- Military
- Court
- Directories
- Health
- Police (Registration)
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- LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah
- Always check the Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) before writing or
traveling to Germany
- German, Polish, Danish and French archives
- Types of archives:
- National
- State
- District
- City
- Church
- Family
- Business
- University
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- Where did your ancestors come from?
- Town/village/city
- County or district
- State
- Using the locality search of the Family History Library Catalog, find
out if the FHL has any records for the locality (place) your ancestor
lived
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- Every record type is represented in the library, but not from every
community
- The largest collections contain local church (parish, synagogue) records
- Use the Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) to find records in the
place your ancestor lived
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- Using a gazetteer published before the year the ancestor emigrated, find
the German town in which your ancestor lived
- A good gazetteer to use is:
- Meyers Orts-Und Verkehrslexikon Des Deutschen Reichs (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2000 [1912-13])
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- The Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) for Germany is based on the
jurisdictions (towns, counties, districts, states) of the period
- 1871-1918
- It is also helpful to search a modern gazetteer and atlas for the
locality in which ancestors lived
(Müllers Grosses Deutsches Ortsbuch) to learn the present
jurisdictions affecting the town.
- Historical records are in the archives with current jurisdiction over
the area in which the ancestor lived in the past.
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- To find the modern Polish names of former German localities in Poland,
check out:
- George K. Kay, Postal Place Names in Poland, (Edinburgh, Scotland: G.K.
Kay, 1992)
- M. Kaemmerer, Müllers Verzeichnis Der Jenseits Der Oder Gelegenenm
Unter Fremder Verwaltung Stehenden Ortschaften (Leer, Germany: Verlag
Gerhard Rautenberg, 1988)
- Raymond S. Wright III, “Finding Former German Localities Now in
Poland,” FEEFHS Quarterly, 6:1-4 (1998), 32-35.
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- Township/county (Kreis, Amt, Gemeinde, Amthauptmannschaft, Landratsamt)
- District (Bezirk, Regierungsbezirk, Provinz, Kreishauptmannschaft,
Kreis)
- Courts (Amtgericht, Landgericht, Oberlandesgericht)
- State (Königreich, Herzogtum, Grafschaft, Furstentum)
- Churches (Pfarrkirche, Synagog, Baptisten Gemeinde)
- Civil Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths (Standesamt)
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- Your ancestors were known to have lived in a place called Schwerin
Warthe
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- From Meyers Orts-Und Verkehrs-Lexikon Des Deutschen Reichs, (vol. 2,
781.)
- Schwerin Warthe: Prussia, Province Posen, District Posen
(Regierungsbezirk), a county
seat, district court in Meseritz, military district headquarters in
Samter, 6,713 inhabitants, with the following agencies: State Office
(Landratsamt), Court, Civil Registrar, County Police Office, Customs/Tax
Office, Lutheran Parish, Catholic Parish, Synagogue…
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- Your ancestors were known to have lived in a place called Schwerin
Warthe
- 1. Search a gazetteer
- 2. Search the Family History Library Catalog (using Place Search) for
the jurisdictions names in the gazetteer
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- There are several record categories for Schwerin Warthe, Prussia,
Germany in the FHLC:
- Church Records
- Civil Records of Births, Marriages, Deaths
- Court Records
- Police Records
- Tax Records
- Emigration Records
- We chose to look at the Church records for Schwerin Warthe, Prussia,
Germany:
- Lutheran (1822-1874)
- Catholic (1817-1873)
- Jewish Synagogue Records (1808-1918)
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- Next, we chose to search the FHLC for the province and district Posen,
Prussia, Germany and found several record categories:
- Emigration
- Census
- Taxation
- Draft Records
- Passport Records
- Notes about the records for Posen:
- Several thousand records exist for the district and the province of
Posen
- The records include archive inventories and inventories of records in
the Family History Library
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- Next, we chose to search the FHLC for Samter, the military district of
Schwerin Warthe:
- Lutheran Military Parish Records
- We also searched the FHLC for Meseritz, the district court of Schwerin
Warthe:
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- Federal, state and city German archives
- German church archives
- Polish archives, including church archives
- Discovering an archive’s content
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- Federal Archives (Bundesarchive)
- Contain records form the highest
level of government from German Confederation to present
- Contain records about ancestors who were in the military (WWI and WWII)
or were government employees
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- Preserve records of the historical states within current state
boundaries (from 10th century to the present)
- Preserve records of cities and towns that have no archives (10th
century to the present)
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- Civil registration
- Church records
- Census
- Emigration
- Passports
- Citizenship
- Land and property
- Tax
- Court
- Police
- Military
- Newspapers
- Directories
- Laws and regulations
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- Plan to go to the state archive nearest the town in which your ancestors
lived
- Some state archives have web pages with summaries of their collections
- For example: Die staatlichen Archive in Bayern
- State archives can answer questions about where to find specific records
about your ancestors
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- Preserve records from city government, courts, employers, schools
- Preserve records from villages and towns under the city’s jurisdiction
- May also preserve church records
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- Citizenship
- Taxation
- Census
- Police
- Work Permits
- Moving-in and moving-out
- Guild
- Marriages
- Deaths
- Cemetery
- Property
- Fire Insurance
- Societies
- Associations
- Churches
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- The Lutheran Church is organized into state churches (Landeskirchen)
- The parishes in each church fall under the state church’s jurisdiction
- The Catholic Church is organized into dioceses and archdioceses that
often cross state boundaries
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- Most Catholic and Lutheran records are preserved in parish churches
- Write to the parish in which your ancestor lived
- During WWII, the German government tried to collect parish records into
state repositories (Kirchenbuch-Ämter)
- Because of these government efforts, a few church archives today
preserve collections of older parish registers
- Parish registers contain christenings, confirmations, marriages,
burials, and sometimes parish censuses or family registers
- Most German church records date from 1650 to the present
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- State archives collect and preserve records from all civil
jurisdictions: state, region, and city
- The National Archives are in Warsaw and also oversee state archives
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- Catholic archives collect and preserve older parish records
- Each diocese has its own archive
- Lutheran records are kept in the parishes
- Some defunct Lutheran parish records are preserved by present-day
Lutheran churches in other cities
- Some Lutheran records are in state archives or in Catholic archives
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- Search Family History Library Catalog under the name of the state or
city and the topic “Archives and Libraries” or “Church records,
inventories, registers, catalogs”
- Search WorldCat or RLIN Eureka at a local library to see if you can get
an inventory of the archive on interlibrary loan
- Contact BYU’s Center for Family History and Genealogy Immigrant
Ancestors Project for information from their survey of archive holdings
in Germany
- http://immigrants.byu.edu
- Find the address, email, or fax of the archive on the web or in Thode’s Address
Book for Germanic Genealogy
- Write to the archive requesting a summary of their collections
(“Übersicht Über die Bestände”) for the community where your ancestors
lived
- If the archive has no summary, ask for a list of their Findbucher
(Finding Books and Catalogs), which will list the titles of each
collection
- If the archive has no catalogs, ask if they can provide a list of their
collection titles or headings
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- Your ancestors may be from a town that is now a suburb or part of a
larger town of a different time
- Records from these communities are normally in the city archives of the
city that absorbed the smaller community
- Remember that the township, district, or county of your ancestors’
hometown may have been or are now in different states or countries
- Records from one area may be in several different city, state, or even
national archives
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- We would like to find the German ancestors of Albertha Agnes Antonia
Lassen
- What do we know about her?
- Born 26 Feb 1845 in Schwerin Warthe, Germany
- What can we learn about Schwerin Warthe?
- Where are the records of a person living here?
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- Its Polish name is Skwierzyna
- It is in the county of Gorzów (Landsberg) and the state of Szczecin
(Stettin)
- Today it is 100 kilometers from the German border in Western Poland on
the Warthe or Warta River
- From 1935-1945, it was in the state of Brandenburg and the county of
Landsberg
- From 1815-1912, it was a county seat in the Prussian province of Posen
and the district of Posen
- In 1793, it was part of the partition of Poland that came to Prussia as
the province of Posen
- Prior to 1793, it was part of the Grand Duchy of Posen (which was
Polish)
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- Lutheran records showed her christening and the names of her parents
(Rasmus Kruse Lassen and Maria Elizabeth Spaeth)
- Catholic and Lutheran records showed her parents’ marriage and the
christenings of 7 siblings were recorded in the Lutheran parish
- Her father was Lutheran from Horsens, Denmark
- Her mother was Catholic from Schwerin, Germany
- The christening of her mother, Maria Elizabeth Spaeth, is copied in the
Catholic parish register in Schwerin and shows her parents as Michael
Spaeth and Veronica Purzel
- The same records document the births of two siblings: Appolonia and
Johann Paul
- Note: The records in the FHLC are copies (duplicates) made for civil
registration purposes and contain gaps during the period when Marie
Elizabeth’s other siblings should appear
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- We searched 4 archives for records:
- Polish State Archives in Szczecin and Posen
- Branch State Archives of Szczecin in Gorzów, Poland (Landsberg):
- Found: Citizenship application from Schwerin for Michael Spaeth stating
that he was born in Schwerin and his occupation was livestock trader
- Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kultur Besitz, Berlin:
- Found: Catholic school records of Schwerin Warthe, Posen (HA XVI, Rep.
32, NR 5375) lists Michael Spaeth, property owner (Eigenthumer) in 1830
as the father of two school children Johann Pual, age 10, and Martin
August, age 8 (a child born during the gap in church records from
Schwerin at the FHLC)
- Das Evangelische Zentralarchiv, Berlin:
- Found: The only records were Lutheran Cemetery Records from Schwerin,
1905-1945
- Note: this archive collects church records from former German areas now
in Poland
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- Sponsored by the BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy
- Has collected questionnaires from about 1,500 German archives describing
their records
- The results of this work will be published next year in a book titled Emigrant
Records in German Archives
- More information about the project and archive addresses is available at
http://immigrants.byu.edu
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Notes
