Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany Genealogy

Guide to Lower Saxony ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
On 8 November 1946, the State of Lower Saxony with its capital Hanover were founded. The state was formed by a merger of the Free States of Brunswick, of Oldenburg and of Schaumburg-Lippe with the previously formed State of Hanover. But there were exceptions:

Wikipedia
 * In the Free State of Brunswick, the eastern part of the district of Blankenburg and the exclave of Calvörde, which belonged to the district of Helmstedt fell into the Soviet Zone of Occupation and were later integrated into the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
 * In the State of Hanover, Amt Neuhaus and the villages of Neu Bleckede and Neu Wendischthun were allotted to the Soviet Zone and thus the subsequent East Germany. They were not returned to Lower Saxony until 1993.
 * The city of Wesermünde that then lay in the Regierungsbezirk Stade was renamed in 1947 to Bremerhaven and incorporated into the new city state of Bremen, which became one of the federated German states.

Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen): Hanover, Brunswick (Braunschweig), Oldenburg, and Schaumburg-Lippe
Today's state of Lower Saxony was created after the Second World War by uniting the country Hanover with the free states Brunswick (Braunschweig), Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe, and the city and district of Pyrmont (formerly part of Waldeck).
 * How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Brunswick (now in Lower Saxony), Germany
 * How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Oldenburg (now in Lower Saxony), Germany
 * How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Hannover and Schaumburg-Lippe (Now in Lower Saxony), Germany

For German Research, You Must Know Your Ancestors' Town

 * To begin using the records of Germany, knowing that your family came from Lower Saxony will not be enough to use the records of Germany. Records are kept on the local level, so you will have to know the town they lived in.
 * Details about the town will also help:
 * the county or "Bezirkamt" of that town,
 * where the closest Evangelical Lutheran or Catholic parish church was (depending on their religion),
 * where the civil registration office ("Standesamt") was, and
 * if you have only a village name, you will need the name of the larger town it was part of.

Research to Find the Town
If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.
 * Use Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin as a guide in exhausting every possible record to find what you need.
 * These various emigration sources are indexed and might help in locating a place of origin.
 * the German Emigration Database at Bremerhaven.
 * Niedersachsen Archives Search Page, enter "Auswanderung" and surname.
 * If your family lived in Hanover in 1852, The 1852 Census of the Kingdom of Hanover is indexed and gives full information on family members.  This site provides links to surname indexes and published booklets of the census records.
 * Emigrants from the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
 * Emigrants from the former Amt Damme, Oldenburg (now Niedersachsen), Germany, mainly to the United States, 1830-1849
 * Emigrant families from the old district Wildeshausen
 * Emigration lists of the former Duchy of Braunschweig,1846-1871, index
 * Schaumburg-Lippe Emigrants, 1820-1914
 * For smaller, regional emigration lists see Lower Saxony Emigration and Immigration

Figure Out the Parish for Your Town
Your town might be too small to have its own parish church. Or it might have a Catholic church, but the Lutheran church is in a neighboring town. You might have to do a little reference work to determine where the church (and therefore the church records) was for your ancestors' town. Methods for doing this are described in:
 * Finding Aids for German Records.

Details: Meyers Gazetteer
Once you know the town name you need, the other facts you need are contained in Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs, the gazetteer on which the FamilySearch catalog for Germany is based.
 * Use MeyersGaz, the digital gazetteer, to find the details you need, particularly the Bezirksamt it belonged to, found after (BA) and the Regierungsbezirk (Administrative District) Niederbayern (RB).
 * MeyersGaz Help Guide
 * Abbreviation Table
 * Here is part of an entry from MeyersGaz.org. 

The most important facts here are: Main Entry Page Ecclesiastical Page
 * 1) Wellheim is in Eichstätt Bezirksamt (BA).
 * 2) It is in Regierungsbezirk (Administrative District) Middle Franconia (MFranken) (RB)
 * 3) It has its own Standesamt (StdA) or civil registration office.
 * 4) It has one Catholic parish church (kath. K.).
 * 5) By clicking on the "Ecclesiastical" option, we learn that the Protest church for Wellheim is in Eichstätt. We also find other nearby churches.

From these historic areas now in Lower  Saxony (Niedersachsen), click below on the related article for the region. Former States Now in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) Modern Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen)
 * Brunswick (Braunschweig)
 * Hanover
 * Oldenburg
 * Schaumburg-Lippe (S-L on map)

Research Tools

 * German Word List
 * Latin Word List
 * Handwriting
 * Handwriting Guide
 * German Handwriting Tutorial
 * Kurrentschrift Converter (enter German genealogical word, click on "convert", view your word in Kurrentschrift (Gothic handwriting)*German Chronological Jurisdictions