Berlin, Brandenburg, Prussia, German Empire Genealogy

Europe Germany  Berlin (Berlin)

Guide to Berlin (Berlin), Germany ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Welcome to the Berlin (Berlin) 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. This is a work in progress, your contributions and feedback are essential!

Berlin, the capital of Germany, is also Germany's largest city. Because of its size, research can be time-consuming. In Meyer's Orts und Verkehrs Lexicon published in 1912 we find that at this time there were 70 Evangelical chapels, 15 Catholic chapels, 15 synagogues, 3 Reformed churches and 2 Baptist churches.

Find Important Information About Your Ancestors' Town

 * To begin using the records of Germany, knowing that your family came from Hessen will not be enough to use the records of Germany. Records are kept on the local level, so you will have to know the town they lived in.
 * Details about the town will also help:
 * the county or "Kreis" of that town,
 * where the closest Evangelical Lutheran or Catholic parish church was (depending on their religion),
 * where the civil registration office ("Standesamt") was, and
 * if you have only a village name, you will need the name of the larger town it was part of.

Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin
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 Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin as a guide in exhausting every possible record to find what you need.

Meyers Gazetteer
Once you know the town name you need, the other facts you need are contained in Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs, the gazetteer on which the FamilySearch catalog for Germany is based.
 * Use MeyersGaz, the digital gazetteer, to find the details you need, particularly the Kreis (county) it belonged to, found after "Kr".
 * MeyersGaz Help Guide
 * Abbreviation Table

Here is part of an entry from MeyersGaz.org. (The whole entry can be studied at Heusenstamm, MeyersGaz.)

Research Tools

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

Administrative Districts
Berlin is divided into twelve boroughs (Bezirke) and 96 subdistricts (Ortsteile).

Boroughs (Bezirke):

Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Lichtenberg, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Mitte, Neu-Kölln, Pankow, Reinickendorf, Spandau, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Templehöf-Schöneberg, Treptow-Köpenick

Subdistricts (Ortsteile):

Church Records
To help locate Lutheran Parishes in Berlin please go to this link Berlin Evangelical Parish Jurisdictions

For a list of addresses of churches in Berlin this is a helpful site.

For good general information regarding Berlin, please click here

Many parishes in Berlin have been indexed and names appear in the International Genealogical Index. Click Batch number indexes for Berlinto see a list of parishes that have been indexed. This listing may not be complete. Click on the appropriate link in the last column to see the alphabetical list of christenings or marriages. Click on "Nächste Seite" for additional parishes.

Civil Registration
Helpful information on Berlin Civil Registration offices can be found here.

A link to Standesamt Mitte. To order civil registration certificates online click on "Online-anfordern".

Directories
Berlin city directories lists by year and images can be found at this [link. Some of the lists are arranged alphabetically by the name of the head of house and others are arranged by the names of the streets and house numbers. ; By using these directories for various years, you may determine the street address where your ancestor lived in Berlin. This information will help you identify the church and civil registration district to search to find additional information.

Changes in the names of the streets in Berlin can be determined by typing the name of the street in "Berlin from A. to Z" at this link.

Forums
To search for Berlin in the Rootsweb archive click here.

History
A description and history of Berlin published in 1786 can be found in Beschreibung der Königlichen Residenzstädte Berlin und Potsdam by Friedrich Nicolai. A link to this book can be found here.

Maps
Map of Berlin in 1907 with street index can be found here. Click on the map to browse images. To locate a specific street, click on "Zum Strassenverzeichnis".

An excellent 1908 map of Berlin (1:20,000) with a street index is available by following this link.

Melde Records
Melde Records (moving records) information can be found for the years 1875-1960 in Berlin. However, because of loss and damage from the War it can be missing data for many time periods. Till now people with birthdates prior to 1850 could rarely be found. You must be able to provide the following information:


 * name
 * maiden names of women
 * Name they were known by
 * birthdate
 * occupation

At the above link is the form that needs to be submitted by the requester.

Another address to try for the Melde Records:

Landeseinwohneramt Berlin Friedrichstraße 219 10958 Berlin Tel.: 030/90269-0

Military
Many military units were stationed in Berlin. This link will help you learn about the various Prussian military units.

Periodicals
Link to digitized issues of Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte Berlinsare available for the years 1884-1943. An index to articles is included.

Stadtbücher
An index of Stadtbuecher can be found at www.Stadtbuecher.de.