Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate Church Record Extractions and Family Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

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Foreign Language Title
Kirchenbuchabschriften und familiennamenkartei von Pfälzisch-Rheinische, Ludwigschafen, Deutschland.

Collection Time Period
This collection of records includes information extracted from church family registers for the years 1600-1925.

How to Use the Records
Family registers were created with data from the parish registers and should be used as a guide to search the actual church records for the ancestor’s christening, marriage, and burial information. Data of an ancestor can be searched by surname and place of residence. Make sure the record found is your ancestor; it is recommended to use the elimination system when more than one family has the same family name. After you have found the information for your ancestor, transfer the information onto your family history record. With this information, the data of siblings or other family members could also be researched.

Record Description
This collection includes images of a combination of church family register extractions and indexes for the district of Rhine Hesse-Palatinate (Rheinland Hessen-Pfalz) in Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). Most image sets are arranged chronologically (by year of event) or alphabetically (by surname).

Record Content
The key genealogical facts found on most family registers include the following:


 * Name of the ancestor, either as a parent or child
 * Names of the ancestor’s siblings, parents, grandparents
 * Date of the ancestor’s birth
 * Place of the ancestor’s birth
 * Occupation of the ancestor’s father
 * Birth dates of the ancestor’s siblings and parents
 * Date of the ancestor’s marriage
 * Date of the ancestor’s death
 * Death dates of the ancestor’s siblings and parents
 * Information concerning emigration in the family

Record History
Family registers may go back to the 1500s, when they began during the time of the Reformation. Because of wars, natural disasters, and accidents, many churches were destroyed, along with all or part of their records. Very few church records go back before 1650 because of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Family registers were created with information from the parish register and should be used as a guide to search the actual church records for the ancestors’ christening, marriage, and burial information. The text in church family registers is written mainly in German. However, earlier text could be handwritten in Latin and after 1945 handwritten in Gothic script. The headings for the extracted information are in English.

Why This Collection Was Created?
Beginning in the 1500s, churches began keeping family registers. This collection of extracted data was created to make it easier to research ancestors.

Record Reliability
Church records (Kirchenbücher) are excellent sources for accurate information on names, dates, and places of birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial. They are the most significant source of genealogical information for Germany before 1876. Most people who lived in Germany were recorded in a church record. However, the information found in a family register depends on how detailed the minister made his record. The extraction of data depends on how well the records were read.

Related Web Sites
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Related Wiki Articles
Germany Genealogy

Germany Church Records

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections

Please add sample citations to this article following the format guidelines in the wiki article listed above. Examples of citations:


 * United States. Bureau of the Census. 12th census, 1900, digital images, From FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: September 29, 2006), Arizona Territory, Maricopa, Township 1, East Gila, Salt River Base and Meridian; sheet 9B, line 71
 * Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1886-1933, digital images, from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: April 22, 2010), Baptism of Adolfo Fernandez Jimenez, 1 Feb. 1910, San Pedro Apóstol, Cuahimalpa, Distrito Federal, Mexico, film number 0227023

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Style Guide
For guidelines to use in creating wiki articles that describe collections of images and indexes produced by FamilySearch, see: FamilySearch Wiki: Guidelines for FamilySearch Collections pages

Sources of Information for This Collection:
“Germany, Ludwigshafen Church Record Extractions and Family Registers”, database, FamilySearch Historical Records (http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch), 2010; from Pfälzisch-Rheinische Familienkunde E. V. Ludwigschafen, Germany. “Germany, Ludwigshafen Church Record Extractions and Family Registers”. Pfälzisch-Rheinische Familienkunde E. V., Ludwigschafen, Germany. FHL digital images. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Originals are housed in Pfälzisch-Rheinische Familienkunde e.V., Rottstrasse 17, 67061 Ludwigshafen, Germany.

The format for citing FamilySearch Historical Collections, including how to cite individual archives is found in the following link: How to Create Source Citations for FamilySearch Historical Records Collections