Munich, Bavaria, Germany Genealogy

History And Geography


Munich (München) Germany Bavaria is the capital and the most populated city in the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is also the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and the 12th largest city in the European Union, with a population of around 1.5 million. The Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 6 million people


 * Munich lies on the elevated plains of Upper Bavaria, about 50 km (31.07 mi) north of the northern edge of the Alps, at an altitude of about 520 m (1,706.04 ft)
 * The local rivers are the Isar and the Würm
 * Munich is situated in the Northern Alpine Foreland. The northern part of this sandy plateau includes a highly fertile flint area which is no longer affected by the folding processes found in the Alps, while the southern part is covered with morainic hills. Between these are fields of fluvio-glacial out-wash, such as around Munich. Wherever these deposits get thinner, the ground water can permeate the gravel surface and flood the area, leading to marshes as in the north of Munich.


 * Munich's city climate lies between the humid continental climate and the oceanic climate. Showers and thunderstorms bring the highest average monthly precipitation in late spring and throughout the summer. The most precipitation occurs in June, on average. Winter tends to have less precipitation, the least in February. The higher elevation and proximity to the Alps cause the city to have more rain and snow than many other parts of Germany.

Boroughs of Munich

Since the administrative reform in 1992, Munich is divided into 25 boroughs or Stadtbezirke, which themselves consist smaller distinct quarters.

Allach-Untermenzing, Altstadt-Lehel, Aubing-Lochhausen-Langwied, Au-Haidhausen, Berg am Laim, Bogenhausen, Feldmoching-Hasenbergl, Hadern, Laim, Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt, Maxvorstadt, Milbertshofen-Am Hart, Moosach, Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, Obergiesing, Pasing-Obermenzing, Ramersdorf-Perlach, Schwabing-Freimann, Schwabing-West, Schwanthalerhöhe, Sendling, Sendling-Westpark, Thalkirchen-Obersendling-Forstenried-Fürstenried-Solln, Trudering-Riem and Untergiesing-Harlaching.

Civil Registration
NOTE: The resources listed below may be in either the German or English language. If you do not know German, you can use an online webpage translator such as http://babelfish.altavista.com/, to give you a basic understanding of the German text on a webpage

Landkreisnetz - Use this website to locate various COUNTY websites in Oberbayern, as well as any TOWN websites for Oberbayern that might be available on the web. The town websites especially can be very useful in locating historical information about the exact place your ancestor was from, to make contact with local residents in the area via guestbook entry or contact city administration personnel at the city hall (Rathaus = city hall, Gemeindeverwaltung = municipality or town administration, Stadtverwaltung = city administration). Some lucky researchers find that city hall personnel may go out of their way to put them in contact with distant relatives who still live in the area or search for entries in a Heimatbuch (local history book) or Chronik (chronicle) that mentions the names of their ancestors.

The Bavarian Genealogy Helper - for Oberbayern - Use this website to find out what parish church your ancestors attended and thereby find out which religious archive to make requests to for Baptism, Marriage and Death records. The website will also tell you what types, and for what years, records for your location should exist.

Civil archives and private archives are terrific sources of record documents for the family researcher once he/she has obtained the most genealogically important (baptism, marriage and death) church records for his/her ancestor.

Types of records found in civil and private archives:

Address Books (Adressbücher) Apprentice Lists (lehrlingsbücher) Census Returns (Volkszählungen) City Chronicles (Stadtchroniken) City Directories (Adressbücher) Citizenship Lists (Bürgerbücher) Court Records (Gerichtsprotokolle) Emigration Lists (Auswanderung register) Family Books (Ortssippenbücher) Family Registers (Familienregister) Funeral Sermons (Leichenpredigten) Grave Registers (Grabregister) Guild Books (Gilderbücher) Land Records (Grundbücher) Lineage Books (Geschlechterbücher) Newspapers (Zeitungen) Parish Registers (Kirchenbücher) Police Registers (Polizeiregister) Probate Records (Testamente) Tax Records (Steuerbücher) Wills (Testamente)

The Staatsarchiv houses documents that originated anywhere within Oberbayern that needed district or national level approval. Important documents, (including emigration requests, among others) originated at the local level but eventually passed upward to the district level for approval. Therefore, while the lower level archives may contain the petitioner's request, which was passed upward, the Staatsarchiv records also include supporting documents and additional comments and requests that resulted during the processing.

Staatsarchiv München - This website gives information on the specific holdings of this archive which serves all of Oberbayern.

Staatsarchiv München Schönfeldstr. 3 80539 München Germany

For mail: Staatsarchiv München Postfach 221152 80501 München Germany

Tel. 089/28638-2525 Fax 089/28638-2526 E-Mail: poststelle@stam.bayern.de

Additionally, to look for municipal-type archives in Oberbayern, visit this webpage:

http://bavariafaqs.homestead.com/MunicipalArchivesList.html Scroll down the page and look for the words: "Regierungsbezirk Oberbayern".

The Standesumter (civil registration offices) only began taking vital records (birth, death, marriage) after 1 Jan 1876. The Munich Standesamt is on-line and records may now be ordered through a web site, but this only applies to those whose ancestors were from the area of Munich itself, and the records are only accessible to direct descendants: http://www.muenchen.de/Rathaus/referate/kvr/standesamt/37639/

You can also contact the Munich Standesamt at the following address:

Landeshauptstadt Munchen Kreisverwaltungsreferat Standesamt Ruppertstr. 11 München Germany

Tel.: 089/233-44344 Fax: 089/233-44320

For people with ancestors from other areas of Oberbayern who may have records after 1 Jan. 1876, contact the appropriate Standesamt (usually located at the same place as the city hall) for wherever they lived. Again, records after 1 Jan. 1876 may only be given to direct descendants. For example, you would be able to obtain records for your parents or grandparents but not for aunts, uncles or cousins or great aunts or uncles, etc.

Catholic or Lutheran Church Records
LUTHERAN records for ALL of Oberbayern can be requested here:

Landeskirchliches Archiv, Kirchenbucharchiv Am Ölberg 2 93047 Regensburg Germany Tel. and Fax: +49 941 / 52061

Website: http://www.lkan-elkb.de/kirchenbuecher.htm

NOTE: As of January, 2003. For the Lutheran archive to answer genealogical inquiries they need (as exact as possible) information about name, place of birth or residence and the approximate year of birth, marriage or death of the persons concerned. In general, they only have parish registers ("Kirchenbuecher") until ca. 1876 for persons belonging to the Lutheran church once having lived within the borders of modern Bavaria. Their main office in Nuernberg only keeps records of Nuernberg and its suburbs. Inquiries concerning other places should be sent to the address above. The registers of many parishes however are still kept at the local pastorate. A list of those parishes whose church books are kept in their branch office is available on their website. They may give you, free of charge, information about existing registers and the place where they are kept. They are not allowed to sell or to lend out microfilms or fiches of the originals.

Costs: For genealogical investigations, regardless of their success, they charge Euro 25 or Euro 30 (depending on the degree of difficulty) per half an hour of research (maximum charge: Euro 90), plus postage and other fees. You should confirm this at the time of your request. Extra services such as issuing documents or making copies or photos are to be paid in addition according to their statement of charges. Customers from abroad are requested to send a cheque in advance (currency: Euro). Any information liable to charge may only be delivered by postal letter. Therefore they ask you to give them your postal address when you make your request or inquiry.