Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria, Germany Genealogy

Geography and History


Dinkelsbühl is a historic town in Central Franconia, a region of Germany that is now part of the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. In local government terms, Dinkelsbühl lies near the western edge of the Landkreis (or local government district) of district of Ansbach, north of Aalen. Dinkelsbühl lies on the northern part of the Romantic Road, and is one of three particularly striking historic towns on the northern part of the route, the others being Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Nördlingen. The town lies on the southern edge of the Franconian Heights and on the River Wörnitz, which rises in the town of Schillingsfürst. The population in 2013 was 11,315.

See Wikipedia for more information on Dinkelsbuhl.
 * Dinkelsbühl is a former Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire.
 * Fortified by Emperor Henry V, in 1305 Dinkelsbühl received the same municipal rights as Ulm.
 * In 1351 was raised to the position of a Free Imperial City. Its municipal code, the Dinkelsbühler Recht, published in 1536, and revised in 1738, contained a very extensive collection of public and private laws.

Online Records

 * There is quite a bit of information from the city of Dinkelsbuhl that has been preserved on microfilm. You can see a list of that in the  FamilySearch Catolog Check your local family history library to see if they are available there to research. Eventually these will be digitized and will be available online.
 * The search Records of FamilySearch option also has information about residents of this area. You can refine your search by adding more information in the box on the left and then clicking on update.
 * Various records can be found through the Meta-Genealogy.net tool on the website of the German Society for Computer Genealogy. Just enter the last name and the town name and it will produce a list of people from that area that are in the data base.

Civil Registration
Stadtverwaltung Dinkelsbühl Segringer Str. 30 91550 Dinkelsbühl Germany phone: +49 9851 9020 email: info(@)dinkelsbuehl.de Website

Civil records in most of Bavaria only go back to the late 1800's. To find family records before that time it is necessary to use church records. However, this is a good place to start.

Catholic Church Records
There are a couple churches in Dinkelsbuhl and several in the surrounding area. They can all be seen on Google Maps Most of the Catholic Churches in Bavaria only keep current records on site. So, it is necessary to go to an archive.