Brandenburg, Germany Genealogy

Europe Germany  Brandenburg (Brandenburg)

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

Jurisdictions and Records
Villages and families from Brandenburg historically have experienced many jurisdictional changes. In searching for a place in Brandenburg the researcher may have to consider localities outside of Brandenburg, since affiliation to county, church, administration etc. was placed with Pomerania, Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia-Czech territories, Poland, Sachsen-Anhalt or Mecklenburg. If archival materials cannot be located, these references should be kept in mind.

See also: FamilySearch Catalog: Historisches Ortsverzeichnis für Brandenburg or Historisches Ortslexikon für die Niederlausitz, call number 943.15 E3Lr

Familienforschung in Mitteldeutschland call number 943.B2mf, Jahrgang 47 Heft 2, Apr/Jun 2006, "Brandenburgs wechselnde Grenzen als Forschungshindernis"

Administrative Districts
Brandenburg is divided into 14 rural districts (Kreise), and 23 four districts (Kreisfreie Städte).

Rural Districts (Kreise):

Barnim, Dahme-Spreewald, Elbe-Elster, Havelland, Märkisch-Oderland, Oberhavel, Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Oder-Spree, Ostprignitz-Ruppin, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Prignitz, Spree-Neiße, Teltow-Fläming, Uckermark

Urban Districts (Kreisfreie Städte):

Stadt Brandenburg an der Havel, Stadt Cottbus, Stadt Frankfurt, Stadt Potsdam

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" and the Regierungsbezirk (Administrative District) Niederbayern (RB).
 * MeyersGaz Help Guide
 * Abbreviation Table
 * Here is part of an entry from MeyersGaz.org. (The whole entry can be studied at Passau, MeyersGaz.)