Brunswick (Braunschweig), German Empire Church Records

For information about records for non-Christian religions in Germany, go to the Religious Records page.

Church records (parish registers, church books) are an important source for genealogical research in Germany before 1876. They recorded details of baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials. The vast majority of the population was mentioned.

Church records also often contain information on local minority faith populations. For example often Evangelical Registers in West Prussia are also populated with Mennonite data, when Mennonites lived in those regions.

In general you will need to know the religion of your ancestors, as different religions kept separate records. The main religious division in Germany was between Catholics (Katholische) and Protestants, comprised mainly of Lutherans (Evangelisch) and Reformed. Catholic records are generally written in Latin, while other records will be written in the local language.

Information Recorded in Church Records

 * The most important church records for genealogical research are baptism, marriage, and burial registers.
 * Later records usually give more complete information than earlier ones.
 * Early records were usually written in paragraph form. As record keeping improved, columns were often used in the entries. Some areas used preprinted forms that required specific information. This format is usually easier to read because the vital information is in the same place in each entry.

Baptisms (Taufen)
Children were usually baptized a few days after birth. Baptism registers usually give: You may also find:
 * the infant's name,
 * parents' names,
 * status of legitimacy, (sometimes by a note in the margin or an upside-down or sideways entry)
 * names of witnesses or godparents (taufzeugen, gevattern, paten), who may be relatives, and
 * baptism date.
 * the child's birth date,
 * the father's occupation, and
 * the family's place of residence,
 * death information, as an added note or signified by a cross. The cross alone does not imply that the individual died as a young child.

Marriages (Heiraten)
Marriage registers give: The registers may also:
 * the marriage date and
 * the names of the bride and groom.
 * indicate whether they were single or widowed and
 * give the names of witnesses.
 * include other information about the bride and groom is often included, such as
 * their ages,
 * their birth dates and places
 * residences,
 * occupations,
 * birthplaces, and
 * parents' names (after 1800)
 * the names of previous spouses and their death dates.

The earliest marriage records may give only the names of the bride and groom and have little or no information about the couple's parents. Couples were often married in the bride's home parish. If there were no marriage restrictions, girls typically married for the first time between ages 18 and 25. Men typically married for the first time in their mid-twenties.

Marriage Banns or Proclamations (Aufgebote)
The marriage registers of some churches give the dates on which the marriage banns were announced. For two or three weeks before the marriage, marriage banns (announcements of the intention to marry) were read and/or posted in church. This gave community members a chance to object to the marriage. Most proclamations took place on consecutive Sundays.
 * If the future spouses were from different parishes, the banns were read in each church. Before the marriage ceremony could take place, the non-local party was required to present the officiating pastor with a paper stating that the proclamations had been read, and there were no objections. A note stating that this person had been "dismissed" to marry elsewhere may be found in the marriage register.
 * The marriage banns themselves may exist in a separate record. Some parishes kept the marriage banns and other marriage information instead of marriage registers.
 * If a couple needed to get married quickly, permission to skip the proclamations could be obtained for a fee. This special permission is called a dispensation. Common reasons for a hasty marriage include pregnancy and imminent emigration.
 * Formal engagements were often associated with a celebration that required the families to purchase a certain amount of alcoholic beverages from the local pub. This custom was known as the "Weinkauf". Engagement dates may be given in the parish register as " der Weinkauf" or "weinkaeuflich ".

Burials (Begräbnisse)
Burial registers may give Information about parents, birth dates, and birthplaces may be inaccurate, depending on the informant's knowledge.
 * the name of the deceased and
 * the date and place of death or burial.
 * the deceased's age,
 * place of residence, and
 * cause of death (list of old German causes of death, and
 * the names of survivors
 * deceased's birth date and place and
 * parents' names

Funeral sermons:If the burial record mentions a sermon, you may be able to find a printed copy at a local library or archive. Funeral sermons often mentioned several generations of ancestors. See Germany Obituaries for more details.

Stillbirths were not recorded the same way in all churches. The pastor or priest often determined how to record stillbirths in his parish. In some areas, stillbirths were recorded in birth records. In other areas, stillbirths were recorded in death records. Some parishes listed stillbirths in both birth and death records. You should check both birth and death records if you suspect that a child was stillborn.

Confirmations (Konfirmationen)
Protestants were usually confirmed around age 14, Catholics about age 12. Some confirmation registers merely list: Other confirmation registers give additional information about those being confirmed, including:
 * the names of those being confirmed and
 * the confirmation date.
 * their ages or birth dates,
 * birthplaces,
 * and fathers' names.

Family Registers (Familienbücher)
Some parishes kept family registers that give information about each family group in the parish. Family registers are more common in southern Germany, especially in Württemberg and Baden after 1808. These registers list:
 * the names of the husband and wife
 * their birth dates and places,
 * their marriage date and place,
 * their parents' names, occupations, and residence.

Children are usually listed in chronological order with their:
 * names,
 * birth dates,
 * confirmation dates,
 * marriage dates, and
 * death dates may be listed.

In some registers, when a child married and remained in the same parish, the register gives a “see” reference and a page number where that particular child appears as the head of a household. Some family registers indicate whether the family moved to another village or emigrated to another country.

The information in family registers was compiled from other church books or obtained from the head of the household, and it is subject to error. Whenever possible, you should confirm all information found in family registers with baptism, marriage, and burial records.

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 OFBs for Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) at GenWiki. These are indexed and searchable. 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. Use the "Find" function on your keyboard to search the bibliographies, as they are not alphabetical.

Feast Dates

 * Calendar Changes in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Countries


 * Each day of the year had several patron saints and was a feast day to honor those saints. Some vital events are recorded in church records only by the holy day (feast day) on the church calendar. For example, the feast day called “All Saints Day” [Allerheiligentag] is “1 November.” An online feast date calculator may be found at the Albion College website. Simply enter the year and click "Calculate."