Germany Genealogy

Guide to German ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Germany is a vibrant country with a rich history and heritage. As with many countries of Europe, Germany has seen dramatic changes to its borders and even its internal regions. Over the centuries, Germany consisted of numerous independent kingdoms, duchies, principalities, and states. Then in 1871, all German-speaking states except the Austrian states were consolidated into the German Empire.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town of Origin in Germany
Records are kept on the local level. You must first identify the name of the town in Germany where your ancestors lived.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 Germany Finding Town of Origin as a guide in exhausting every possible record to find what you need.

The German Empire 1871, Meyer's Gazetteer, and FamilySearch Records
Germany was first unified as a nation in 1871. The German Empire consisted of 26 states, most of them ruled by royal families. They included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies (six before 1876), seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. An important gazetteer, Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs, "Meyer's Gazetteer" for short, details the place names of villages, towns. counties (kreise), and higher jurisdictions used at that time. As FamilySearch began microfilming the records of Germany, those records were organized in the Card Catalog using those place names. That system is still in use today in the FamilySearch Catalog and FamilySearch Historical Records.

At the end of both World Wars, the boundaries of the states were changed dramatically, as areas of Germany were distributed among the Allied nations. Eventually, after re-unification in 1990, the states of Germany settled into what they are today. It is also necessary to understand Germany by this system, as it affects the locations of archives and mailing addresses used in correspondence searches.

Finding Your Town's Province, Kingdom, or Duchy in 1871
Once you know the town where your ancestors lived, consult a gazetteer for more details. You will need to identify the jurisdictions it belonged to in 1871, especially the province or duchy. Also, you might need to identify nearby towns where they attended church and where they registered births, marriages, and deaths with a civil registrar. Use Meyer's Gazetteer or a regional online gazetteer. For help, see Studying Your German Locality.'''

Finding Research Instructions and Links to Records
'''For each province or duchy, this wiki provides a detailed set of articles teaching you how to carry out your research project, including links to online records. ''' These clickable maps and jurisdiction lists will link you to the instructions for your locality. Use the first map if you are looking for ancestors who lived before 1945. Use the second map if you are looking for records after 1945.

Clickable Maps: The German Empire, 1871-1918
Provinces, Kingdoms, and Duchies of the German Empire: English (German, if different)

Clickable Map: Modern Germany (1945-Present)
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If Your Town Is in a Territory Germany Lost in 1919 or 1945
There are wiki articles explaining how to do research in former territories of Germany. Study the map below and click on the correct region in the List of Former German Territories, the Date of the Boundary Change, and the Current Country.

List of Former German Territories, the Date of the Boundary Change, and the Current Country
Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen), 1919: France Brandenburg: the Neumark region, 1945: Poland East Prussia, 1945: Eupen-Malmédy, 1919: Belgium Free City of Danzig, 1945: Poland North Schleswig, 1919: Denmark Pomerania, 1945: Posen, 1919: Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie, Poland Silesia (Schlesien), 1945:
 * Southern East Prussia, (Warmia) and (Masuria), and Soldau became part of Poland.
 * Northern East Prussia was divided between:
 * the Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg) Oblast: Russia
 * the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region: Lithuania
 * Memel Territory : Lithuania
 * western Pomerania is in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
 * Pomeralia (Gdansk Pomerania, or East Pomerania): Poland
 * mostly in Poland
 * The Hlučín Area of Moravian-Silesian Region: Czech Republic
 * the small Lusatian strip west of the Oder-Neisse line: Saxony
 * Upper Silesia, 1919: Poland
 * West Prussia, 1919: Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

More Germany Research Strategies and Tools

 * Germany Historic and Current States--maps
 * Finding Aids for German Records
 * German Research Troubleshooting Strategies
 * The German Genealogy Wiki (GenWiki)
 * Germany Genealogy Resources from Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS)
 * German Research Websites
 * German Genealogy MetaSearch
 * Research Tips and Strategies
 * German Resources
 * Calendar Changes in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Countries

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Germany Classes and Tutorials - Germany Online genealogy courses in the Learning Center
 * Historical Records - Germany Locality Page
 * Family History Center locator map