Altötting, Bavaria, Germany Genealogy

History and Geography


Altötting is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Altötting. It is in the Administrative District of Oberbayern in Bavaria. For 500 years it has been the scene of religious pilgrimages by Catholics in honor of Mary including a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1980 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.


 * During the Carolingian period, there was a royal palace here.
 * In 876 King Carloman erected a Benedictine monastery, with Werinolf as first abbot, and also built the abbey church in honour of the Apostle St. Philip.
 * In 907 King Louis the Child gave the abbey to Burchard, the Bishop of Passau.. In 910 the Hungarians ransacked and burnt the church and abbey.
 * In 1228 Duke Louis I of Bavaria rebuilt these buildings and, after they were sanctified, placed them in charge of twelve Canons Regular, headed by a provost. The canons remained until the secularization of the Bavarian monasteries in 1803.
 * Saint Conrad of Parzham, served as porter at the Friary of St. Ann in the city of Altötting for 40 years. See Wikipedia

Online Records

 * This link takes you to the FamilySearch Catalogue where there is a list of records that are on microfilm from this city. They might be available at your local Family History Center. Some of them have been digitized and are available online. Eventually they will all be digitized but for now it is necessary to check one at a time. The ones with a picture of a camera by it have been digitized. Then when you click on the camera either the actual documents can be viewed online or it will instruct you to go to a Family History Center.
 * There is some information from the cemetery in Altotting at Find A Grave
 * Bavaria, Germany, WWI Personnel Rosters, 1914-1918 may include information on some soldiers from this area on Ancestry.com This source is most useful when you are able to enter the ancestors full name and place of birth. However if you don't know all those details enter what you can and you may be pleasantly surprised.
 * Ancestry.com also has quite a bit of documentation concerning the Jewish Holocaust Survivors taken from Soldier, Veteran & Prisoner Rolls & Lists of former residents of Altotting.
 * Various Bavarian records can be found through the Meta-search tool on the website of the German Society for Computer Genealogy. You just need to enter Altotting as the place name then click "start search" and it will provide an alphabetical (by last name) list of all the information on this data base from that city. Or you can put in a surname and see what it brings up from all over Germany. Of course, the preferred approach would be to fill in both the town and the surname is you know both.

Civil Records
Stadtverwaltung (City Administraion Building) Kapellpl. 2A 84503 Altötting Germany Phone: +49 8671 50620 Email: info@altoetting.de Website

In most of Bavaria civil records have only been kept since the late 1800's. If you are seeking information concerning your family prior to that time it is necessary to go to church records. However, this is a good place to start your genealogy research.

Catholic Church Records
There are a few Catholic Churches in the city of Altotting and the surrounding area. It is possible to see the location of all of them and find some information about each at Google Maps

The Shrine of Our Lady of Altötting, also known as the Chapel of Grace (Gnadenkapelle), is the national shrine of Bavaria dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is known for the many healings which are said to have taken place there, and is commonly called the Lourdes of Germany.

Gnadenkapelle Catholic Church
Kapellplatz 4b 84503 Altötting Germany Website If you like to email this church with questions about their parish records you must use the website to do so. Open the website, click on Kontakt at the top of the page and use the form to send an email. In Bavaria usually only current records are kept in the local parishes. Many more records are available at the Diocese Archives. Altotting is in the Passau Diocese.

Archiv des Bistums Passau
Luragogasse 4 94032 Passau Germany Telefon: 0851 - 393 1471 Fax: 0851 - 3931479 E-Mail: archiv@bistum-passau.de Website

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 was not a Lutheran church in 1871 in Altotting. The closest Lutheran parish at that time was in Reidl, which is 6 miles from Altotting.