Germany Digital Resources

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An increasing number of digital resources for German genealogy is becoming available on the Internet, on CD-Rom and other media. Many of these materials are currently only available in German. This page is intended to


 * 1) alert the reader to available digital resources
 * 2) provide step-by-step instructions for users who do not speak German

German Research on the Internet- compiled lists
Several lists of useful websites for German genealogy are available. These lists, used for classroom instruction, are updated regularly. Included are


 * German Research on the Internet - an Overview
 * Internet Resources for Locating 19th Century German Emigrants
 * German Town Genealogies and Parish Register Indexes on the Internet

Using the DigiBib (Digital Library) on Genealogy.net
The DigiBib, short for Digital Bibliothek (Digital Library) is one of several major on-going projects carried out by members of the German Verein fuer Computergenealogie (Society for Computer Genealogy). This society has over 3000 members worldwide and provides numerous digital resources for German family history research. Many volunteers digitize books of interest to genealogists and family historians. These materials are either free of copyright or included with the author’s express permission.

Sections found on the homepage
The DigiBib is divided into several categories:


 * Genealogische Literatur- genealogical literature
 * Tagebuecher und Handschriften – journals and manuscripts
 * Heraldik -heraldry Raritaeten - rarities
 * Adressbuecher, Staatskalender etc. – address books, state calendars etc.
 * Militaerisches – military resources
 * Pfarr-und Kirchenbuchverzeichnisse – parish- and parish register inventories
 * Historische Karten – historical maps
 * Ortslexika, Topografien, Statistiken etc. – gazetteers, topographical and statistical material, etc.
 * Chroniken - histories
 * Sonstige Nachschlagewerke, Vermischtes – other reference works, miscellaneous
 * Andere digitale Bibliotheken- other digital libraries

Each section on the portal page mentions either representative or the most recently acquired titles. Click on "mehr..." to acces the complete list of books available in this category.

On the left: Administrative/information section
Neu dabei – recent additions Korrekturleser gesucht – proofreaders wanted In Vorbereitung – in preparation

Important!
The DigiBib uses so-called DjVu files for many of its digitized materials. For a Wiki setting, this format has certain advantages over conventional scans, but it requires installation of a special free reader. A plug-in by LizardTech for the operating systems Windows, Mac OS-X, and Linux can be downloaded here.

Note: Occasionally Firefox users have problems opening a DjVu file; this is known to LizardTech and will hopefully be remedied soon. This problem usually does not happen in Internet Explorer. [as of July 2009]

Hints for successful navigation
Each book found in the DigiBib is a separate project. The goal is to transcribe each book and make the contents fully searchable. A "project box" is found on the right side of each page.