Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany Genealogy

History and Geography


Nuremberg (N&uuml;rnberg) is a city on the river Pegnitz and on the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia, about 110 miles north of Munich. It is the second-largest city in Bavaria and the largest in Franconia. As of February 2015 it had a population of 517,498, making it Germany's fourteenth-largest city.


 * N&uuml;rnberg was the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau.
 * From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes. King Conrad III established a burgraviate, with the first burgraves coming from the Austrian House of Raab but, with the extinction of their male line around 1190, the burgraviate was inherited by the last count's son-in-law, of the House of Hohenzollern.
 * From the late 12th century to the Interregnum (1254–73) the power of the burgraves diminished as the Hohenstaufen emperors transferred most non-military powers to a castellan, with the city administration and the municipal courts handed over to an Imperial mayor from 1173/74.
 * The strained relations between the burgraves and the castellan, with gradual transferral of powers to the latter in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, finally broke out into open enmity, which greatly influenced the history of the city.
 * The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere and the ossification of the social hierarchy and legal structures contributed to the decline in trade. See Wikipediafor more information about Nuremberg.

Online Records

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 * Various records can be found through the Meta-search tool on the website of the German Society for Computer Genealogy. You just need to enter N&uuml;rnberg as the place name then click "start search" and it will provide an alphabetical (by last name) list of all the information on this data base from that city.
 * Bavaria, Germany, WWI Personnel Rosters, 1914-1918 includes information on some soldiers from Nurnberg on Ancestry.com This source is most useful when you are able to enter the ancestors full name and place of birth. However if you don't know all those details enter what you can and you may be pleasantly surprised.
 * The FamilySearch Catalog has a list of records and documents preserved on microfilm. They might be available at family history center or affiliate library. Some of them have been digitized and can be seen online. Requests to digitize can be submitted for films not yet available online (microfilm icon). Eventually they will all be digitized.
 * There are some memorials from N&uuml;rnberg Cemeteries at Find A Grave It is a good idea to check there occasionally for new information that has been added.

Civil Registration
The Standesamts (Civil Registration Office) or the Rathaus (Town Hall) in most of Bavaria only have records back to the late 1800's. If you are seeking information concerning your family prior to that time it is necessary to go to church records. However civil records can be a good place to start. Below is the information for the Standesamt and Rathaus of Nurnberg. They use the same website and phone number. N&uuml;rnberg - Registry Office/Standesamt Hauptmarkt 18 90403 Nurnberg Germany

+49 911 2310 Website

Rathaus Nürnberg/Bürgermeisteramt Rathauspl. 2 90403 Nurnberg Germany

Catholic Church Records

 * There are several Catholic Parishes in the city of N&uuml;rnberg and the surrounding area. It is possible to see the location of all of them and find some information about each on Google Maps
 * This next link will take you to a site that provides additional and interesting information about the Catholic Church in Nurnberg

In Bavaria usually only current records are kept in the local parishes. Many more records are available at the Diocese Archives. N&uuml;rnburg is in the Bamberg Diocese and the info for that archive is below.

Archiv des Erzbistums Bamberg - for most of Oberfranken Domplatz 3 D-96049 Bamberg Germany Tel. 0951/502411 Telefax 0951/502425 Records are kept here from Nu&uuml;rnberg for Births: * 1636-1877, Marraige: oo 1636-1877 and Death: + 1636-1877.
 * The archive will accept research requests and arrange for professional researchers to answer them.

Lutheran Church Records
Bavaria was and is predominantly Catholic. If your ancestors lived in N&uuml;rnberg, there is a chance they affiliated with the Catholic Church. However, if you do not find them in Catholic records, you should search the Lutheran records.
 * According to the Meyers Gazetteer there have been Lutheran churches in N&uuml;rnberg since at 1871.
 * Today there are several Lutheran churches and parishes that serve this area. You can see their locations onGoogle Maps Click on the one you are interested in and it will bring up the address and information on that church.

Among the many documents on microfilm of N&uuml;rnberg, there are quite a few that are from Lutheran (Evangelicshe) churches. The list can be seen in the FamilySearch catalog Some of them have been digitized and can be seen online. Eventually they will all be available in this format.
 * Many records for the Lutheran (Evangelical) churches in Bavaria are digitized and available online through Archion ($). This is not a free site, but requires registration and a membership fee. This link gives instructions on How to Use Archion
 * Legacy Tree provides a detailed description of Archion that you may find valuable in deciding if this is a resource you want to use.

You can email to inquire about information for you ancestors.
 * The Lutheran Archive for Bavaria is in Nurnberg. It is always a good idea to contact in advance and make an appointment to use any archive.

Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evang.-Luth. Church in Bavaria Veilhofstraße 8 90489 Nurnberg Germany E-Mail: archiv@elkb.de Website

Cemeteries
There are several cemeteries in Nuremberg and the surrounding area. The can be seen on Google Maps

Click on the above link that goes to Google Maps to see all of them. Select one and click on it in the column on the left. This will bring up the address and phone number of that particular cemetery.
 * When traveling Find A Grave and Billion Graves both have great phone apps to help you locate cemeteries.
 * However in a city this size walking through cemeteries would be very time consuming, unless you know which cemetery to go to and use the cemetery map to find the grave of your relative.
 * If you want to find information on your ancestors in a cemetery, keep in mind that in most German cemeteries the grave plots are re-used as often as every 25 years. (sometimes 50 -100 years). For this reason church and civil records are a better genealogy source, unless you find a cemetery that has kept a record of all those buried there in the past.

Additional Help
We hope that the above information will be useful to those seeking genealogy for their family from Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. If you are still struggling be sure to use the "Bavaria Wiki Topics" guide on the upper right side of this page. Another wonderful resource available on Wiki is the Wiki Wizard German videos.