Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria, Germany Genealogy

Geography and History


Dinkelsbühl is a historic town in Middle Franconia, a region that is now part of the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. In local government terms, Dinkelsbühl lies near the western edge of the Landkreis (or local government district) of district of Ansbach, north of Aalen. Dinkelsbühl lies on the northern part of the Romantic Road, and is one of three particularly striking historic towns on the northern part of the route, the others being Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Nördlingen. The town lies on the southern edge of the Franconian Heights and on the River Wörnitz, which rises in the town of Schillingsfürst. The population in 2013 was 11,315.

See Wikipedia for more information on Dinkelsbühl.
 * Dinkelsbühl is a former Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire.
 * Fortified by Emperor Henry V, in 1305 Dinkelsbühl received the same municipal rights as Ulm.
 * In 1351 it was raised to the position of a Free Imperial City. Its municipal code, the Dinkelsbühler Recht, published in 1536, and revised in 1738, contained a very extensive collection of public and private laws.

Online Records

 * There is quite a bit of information from the city of Dinkelsbühl that has been preserved on microfilm. You can see a list of that in the  FamilySearch Catolog Check your local family history library to see if they are available there to research. Some of these are available online and can no longer be researched on microfilm. Eventually they will be all be digitized and available online.
 * The search Records of FamilySearch option also has information about residents of this area. You can refine your search by adding more information in the box on the left and then clicking on update.
 * Various records can be found through the Meta-Genealogy.net tool on the website of the German Society for Computer Genealogy. Just enter the last name and the town name and it will produce a list of people from that area that are in the data base.
 * There is some military information on Ancestory.com for Dinkensbuhl. You can refine your search by clicking on edit and then entering the name of the person you are looking for from your family.

Civil Registration

 * Civil Records are kept at the Rathaus or Standesamt
 * Information for the city of Dinkelsbuhl's Rathaus is listed below

Stadtverwaltung Dinkelsbühl Segringer Str. 30 91550 Dinkelsbühl Germany phone: +49 9851 9020 email: info(@)dinkelsbuehl.de Website

Civil records in most of Bavaria only go back to the late 1800's. To find family records before that time it is necessary to use church records. However, this is a good place to start.

Catholic Church Records
There are a couple Catholic churches in Dinkelsbühl and several in the surrounding area. They can all be seen on Google Maps Most of the Catholic Churches in Bavaria only keep current records on site. So, it is necessary to go to an archive. The older parish records of Dinkensbuhl are at the Augsburg Archive.

Archiv des Bistums Augsburg
Pfarrhausstrasse 4 86154 Augsburg Germany Telefon: 0821 - 3166 8561 Fax: 0821 - 3166 8569 E-Mail: archiv@bistum-augsburg.de Website
 * It is best to contact the archive in advance and make an appointment. You can do this using the email address above or by telephone.
 * The archive of the Diocese of Augsburg does not accept private inquiries about family research. This archive welcomes patrons to view the records on micro-films. Since only a limited number of readers are available, pre-registration is required.
 * The list of filmed registers can be found at Pfarrmatrikeln [Http://www.bistum-augsburg.de/Generalvikariat-Zentrale-Dienste/Archiv-des-Bistums/Pfarrmatrikeln Parish Records] in the left column. They can't be viewed online, this is just a list of what is at the archive.
 * For the purpose of family research, private individuals have the possibility of commissioning external companies or private individuals with corresponding research tasks in the archives of the Diocese of Augsburg. You can contact the archive for information on securing a researcher.

Lutheran Church Records
Bavaria was and is predominantly Catholic. If your ancestors lived in Augsburg, there is a chance they affiliated with the Catholic church. However, if you do not find them in Catholic records, you should search the Lutheran records.
 * According to Meyer's Gazetteer, there were two Lutheran churches in 1871 in Dinkelsbühl. Today there is one Lutheran parish serving this town.

Evangelical Church
Dr.-Martin-Luther-Str. 4 Dinkelsbühl Germany Tel: 098512319 Fax: 098516914 E-Mail: Pfarramt.dinkelsbuehl@elkb.de Website


 * Many records for the Lutheran (Evangelical) churches in Bavaria are digitized and available online through Archion ($). This is not a free site, but requires registration and a membership fee. This link gives instructions on How to Use Archion
 * Legacy Tree provides a detailed description of Archion that you may find valuable in deciding if this is a resource you want to use.


 * The Lutheran Archive for Bavaria is in Nurnberg. At this time (March 2018) the parish records for Dinkelsbühl are not at the archive, however that may change in time. But for now you should contact the local church for genealogy information. It is always a good idea to contact in advance and make an appointment with a church or archive if you plan to go there.

Veilhofstraße 8 90489 Nurnberg Germany E-Mail: archiv@elkb.de Website

Cemeteries
There are several cemeteries in Dinkellbuhl. They can all be seen on Google Maps If you are lucky enough to go to Dinkelsbühl and want to find a cemetery Find A Grave and Billion Graves both have great phone apps to help you locate cemeteries. In a city this large walking through cemeteries could be very time consuming, unless you know which cemetery to go to and use the cemetery map to find the grave of your relative. If you are hoping to find information on your ancestors in a cemetery, keep in mind that in most Bavarian cemeteries the grave plots are re-used as often as every 25 years. (sometimes 50 -100 years).

Additional Help
We hope that the above information will be useful to those seeking genealogy for their family from Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria, Germany. If you are still struggling be sure to use the "Bavaria Wiki Topics" guide on the upper right side of this page. Another wonderful resource available on Wiki is the Wiki Wizard German videos.