Schönsee, Bavaria, Germany Genealogy

Schönsee is a very small quaint village in southeastern Bavaria, Germany. "Schönsee is a town in the district of Schwandorf, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated near the border of the Czech Republic, 38 km northeast of Schwandorf, and 34 km southeast of Weiden in der Oberpfalz. Wikipedia

Online Records
There are a few online marriage records for Schönsee:
 * Heiratsbelege : Schönsee, 1862-1915 This link takes you to the family search genealogy catalogue list of microfilmed documents for civil records of marriage proclamations, marriage supplements, and permissions to change residence for Schönsee residents (BA. Oberviechtach), Bayern, Germany. They can be viewed at Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Family History Library in Provo, Utah or the Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City, Utah for no charge. If it is not possible for you to visit one of these places you can use this link to find a family history center near you where they can order the film for you to view.
 * There is some Schonsee information at Find A Grave
 * WWI Soldier information is available on Ancestry.com about soldiers from the town of Schonsee.

Civil Registration
The records that they have are great and it is a good place to start. However, the person over vital records is not always there or always available to assist with research. It is important to contact them ahead of time to make an appointment. The good news is that they don't usually charge for making a copy of anything they are able to find on your family. (As of 2010) Schönsee Standesamt Hauptstraße 25 92539 Schönsee Germany Phone: 09674 / 9212-0 Fax: 09674 / 9212-29 info@vg-schoensee.de
 * Website

St. Wenzelslaus Catholic Church
Some of the Catholic Parrish Records are in Schonsee at the office of the Catholic priest.

Katholische Pfarramt St. Wenzelslaus Pfarrgasse 4 92539 Schönsee Germany Tel .: 09674/230 Website

Regensburg Catholic Archive
Many more records are available at the Archive in Regensburg.

Regensburg Bischöfliches Zentralarchiv - for most of Oberpfalz St.Petersweg 11-13 D-93047 Regensburg Germany
 * List of parish registers
 * Information for requesting research by the archives for a fee.
 * The archives will do genealogical research for you. Requests can be made by mail or email. The fee for genealogical research is Euros 35.00 per half an hour plus postage.

The records in the Regensburg Catholic Archive are on microfische which takes time and patience to read. It is necessary to make an appointment to use a film reader. There is a 5 Euro fee per day per person to do research and a charge per document you ask to have copied.(I think we paid about 8 Euros per page) This can add up to an expensive way to gather information, however you can just take a pencil (not an ink pen) and paper and write down what you find. The people that work there don't usually have much time to assist you....so go planning on spending the first half of the day just learning out to use their system. Also, if you complete your research at the end of the day they may not be able to have the documents you need copied until the next day. You can return the next day to pick them up or you can pay them to mail them to your home.

Cemeteries
There is a beautifully kept cemetery in Schönsee just down the street from the Catholic Church. If you want to find information on your ancestors in a cemetery, keep in mind that in most Bavarian Cemeteries they recycle or resale the grave plots as often as every 25 years. (sometimes 50 -100 years). An explanation of the regulation of reusing graves is given here. However, there are a few tombstones back into the 1700's there. If you have family from one of the small villages near this town, and you cannot find a cemetery there go check out Schönsee. Dietersdorf and Schwand are among those places that use the Schönsee Parish and cemetery. The four cemeteries of Schönsee, Gaisthal, Stadlern and Weiding are within the jurisdiction of the administrative community of Schönsee.