Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz), Germany Genealogy

Germany  Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz)

Guide to Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz), Germany ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Welcome to the Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) page! FamilySearch Wiki is a community website dedicated to helping people throughout the world learn how to find their ancestors. Through this page you can learn how to find, use, and analyze records of genealogical value. The content is variously targeted to beginners, intermediate, and expert researchers. Please visit the help page to learn more about using the site. This is a work in progress, your contributions and feedback are essential!

Rhineland-Palatinate

The capital, Mainz,

Getting started in Rhineland-Palatinate research
Before starting your research in Rhineland-Palatinate, you need to know the name of your ancestor in its original or Germanic form, an approximate date when he or she was born, and the village or parish where he or she may have lived in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Civil registration began in Rhineland-Palatinate in xxxx. If your research in Rhineland-Palatinate begins after xxxx, then you should begin with the records kept by the local authorities of your ancestor's residence. If your research begins before xxxx, you should begin with the parish registers for baptisms, marriages and burials kept in the church archives.

Once you have this information, you can search in the local archives for more information about your ancestor.

Research Tools

 * German Word List
 * Latin Word List
 * Handwriting
 * Handwriting Guide
 * German Handwriting Tutorial
 * http://www.kurrentschrift.net/index.php5?s=schreiben (enter your German genealogical word, click on "umwandeln" and view your word in Kurrentschrift (Gothic handwriting)
 * German Chronological Jurisdictions

Administrative Districts
Rhineland-Palatinate is divided into 24 rural, and 12 urban districts.

Rural Districts (Kreise):

Ahrweiler, Altenkirchen, Alzey-Worms, Bad Dürckheim, Bad Kreuznach, Barnkastel-Wittlich, Birkenfeld, Bitburg-Prüm, Cochem-zell, Donnersbergkreis, Germersheim, Kaiserslautern, Kusel, Mainz-Bingen, Mayen-Koblenz, Neuwied, Rhein-Hunsrück, Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, Südliche Weinstraße, Südwestpfalz, Trier-Saarburg, Vulkaneifel, Westerwaldkreis

Urban Districts (Kreisfreie Städte):

Frankenthal, Kaiserslautern, Kolbenz, Landau, Ludwigshafen, Mainz, Neustadt, Pirmasens, Speyer, Trier, Worms, Zweibrücken