Hamburg Town Genealogies

How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records in Hamburg
Most of your genealogical research for Hamburg will be in three main record types: civil registration, church records, and, when available, a compiled town genealogy ("'Ortssippenbuch" or "Ortsfamilienbuch" in German). This article will teach you how to use these records on digital databases, as microfilms, or by writing for them.
 * How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records
 * Civil Registration
 * Church Records
 * Town Genealogies

Town Compilation of Records (Ortssippenbuch or Ortsfamilienbuch)
See class
 * An Ortssippenbuch (town lineage book) or Ortsfamilienbuch (town family book) generally includes birth, marriage, and death data for all persons found in the local records during a specified time period, compiled into families. If one is available, it can act as an index or guide to finding the original records. However, they may contain errors, so it is best to verify their information in original records.
 * Sources may include the local parish registers, civil registration records, court and land records, and sometimes published material. In the printed book, this information is then arranged in a standardized format, usually alphabetically by surname and chronologically by marriage date.

Finding an OFB

 * Click here to see the hundreds of OFBs at GenWiki. These are indexed and searchable. Links to a town with a searchable OFB are added in the town list above, if available.  OFB Instructions.


 * A bibliography of OFBs held by the Central Office for Person and Family History, and available in their archive in Frankfurt am Main-Höchst, is listed here. You can arrange for copied pages to be sent to you for a fee or donation.