Abbreviation Table for Meyers Orts und Verkehrs Lexikon Des Deutschen Reichs

Family History PATRON CLASS HANDOUT Library (Ref 943 E5mo)

Abbreviation Table for Meyers

Orts Und Verkehrslexikon

Historical Perspective
From the time of Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse) 800 A.D. to 1806, there was an entity known as the ‘Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation,’ ruled by an emperor and the nobility. From 1701 on, a large chunk of this empire was known as the Kingdom of Prussia. When Napoleon Bonaparte began his conquest, the whole empire began to break up. The last ruling family of the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation,” the Hapsburgs, retreated into the Eastern Areas, and reorganized the Germanic areas into a new empire, which they ruled. This became known as the Austrian Empire.

Beginning in 1820, Custom Unions began to be established in the Western Areas of the old empire. In the 1860’s the Prussian ministerial president serving under King Wilhelm of Prussia, made a deal with rulers of those Germanic areas Prussia hadn’t been able to conquer such as the Kingdom of Baden, Bavaria, Württemberg, the Duchy of Mecklenburg, and so forth. If they agreed to join with and organize into a new German Empire, they would have some power and authority in the new regime. By January 1871, agreements were reached, and the 2nd German Empire was established. King Wilhelm of Prussia became emperor (Kaiser) and Otto von Bismark became the chancellor.

All rulers of these various Germanic Kingdoms, Provinces, Principalities, Duchies, Grand Duchies and Free Cities now reported to the “national government” in the form of Emperor Wilhelm. The boundaries of each entity were clarified, and they all became “states” in the new empire.

Meyers Orts-und Verkehrs-Lexikon represents these boundaries as they were between 1871 and 1918.

Abbreviation Table and Glossary
Localities in Germany are arranged in the FamilySearch Catalog according to the boundaries of the 1871 German Empire. For cataloging purposes the gazetteer Meyers Orts-und Verkehrs-Lexikon  (FHL call no.: book – Ref 943. E5mo; film- 0,496,640 [Localities A-K]; and fiche – 6,000,001-6,000,029) is used. This is an excellent gazetteer, indicating which of the localities have parishes and which have civil registration offices. The entries of the different localities have many abbreviations. The following list is basically an abbreviation table with a few common words, which will be helpful in using the gazetteer. This list should be allowed some freedom due to interpretation and considering the time frame that these terms were used. Some words have different meanings now or are no longer used.

Those abbreviations or words preceded by … indicate that it can also be used as the end or beginning of a combined word.

Abbreviation Table
Words having the ending …erei; …isch; …ungs are abbreviated with a period (.) (thus these endings will have to be added to make the word). Example: Fischerei = Fisch.; Wendisch =Wend. The words ending in …lich are abbreviated after the “l” by a period. Example: nördlich = nrdl.

Population figures after place names, if printed in italics indicate that the census figures of 1905 were used, rather than the 1910 figures, used otherwise throughout the book.