Internet Sources of German Genealogy

I) General / regional genealogical information

A) General information
B) Regional information
C) Genealogical associations
D) Emigration

III) Secondary genealogical sources

A) Archives
B) Parish book lists online
C) Online libraries catalogues
D) Newspapers and Magazines
E) Publishers, bookstores, antiquarian bookstores online
F) Online town locator
G) Online phone books and CD-ROMs
H) Sources of supply for historical /detailed maps

V) Mailing lists

VI) Commercial offers

VII) Genealogy software

Appendix A) Other surveys to genealogy worldwide

Appendix B) Search engines

I) General / regional genealogical information:

A) General information

B) Regional information

C) Genealogical associations

D) Emigration

• soc.genealogy.german Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) by Dr. Jim Eggert, USA
  ( !!! lecture for beginners strongly recommended !!! )

• Information on German genealogy by the German Genealogy Team, Germany, USA (Site in Germany)

• Information on German genealogy by the German Genealogy Team, Germany, USA (second German Site, mirror of the above site)

• Ortsfamilienbücher (Ortssippenbücher und Familienbücher) , arranged by Günther Schweizer , Germany

• Phaleristik / Genealogie (Bestandsverzeichnis des EZA Berlin) by Uwe Brueckner, Germany

• Addresses of the Family History Centers of the mormons (LDS Church) in Germany / Austria / Switzerland

• German Genealogy Cross-Index by Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS)

• various regions with (former) German language population (e.g.: Hessen, Mecklenburg, Niedersachsen, Österreich, Schweiz; within the site of the German Genealogy Team )

• World GenWeb site: Germany

• Forschungsstelle zur Genealogie im ehem. Herzogtum Bukowina by Dr.Claudius von Teutul, Germany

• Donauschwaben by Rick Heli, USA (former Banat mailing list page / within the site of the German Genealogy Team)

• The Emsland Society

• Geschichte, Genealogie und Mundart von Ensheim (Saarland) by Paul Glass, Fichtenberg-Erlenhof, Germany (broken link)

• Ahnenforschung im Erzgebirge

• German-Russian Genealogy by the ODESSA Group, USA

• Kutschurgan history of the six German villages of the Kutschurgan Valley just N/W of Odessa

• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, by Karin Schöpke, Germany

• Nordmähren (Sudetenland) by Andreas Hanacek, Germany

• Oberpfalz by Franz Ziegler (within the site of the German Genealogy Team)

• The Wind-Mill Project (Ostfriesland) von H.B. Harvey, USA

• Pfalz by Andreas Hanacek, Germany

• Kraig Ruckel's Palatine & Pennsylvania-Dutch Genealogy by Kraig Ruckel, USA

• Genealogy and Poland by Lukasz Bielecki, Poland (also dealing with the former German provinces)

• Pommern by Kent Peterson

• Prussian-Russian-Canadian Mennonite Genealogical Resources by Richard D. Thiessen/Adalbert Goertz

• Schwaben (Bayern) by Andreas Hanacek, Germany

• Swiss Genealogy Project

• Schweiz by Tim Philipp, USA (esp. Canton Graubünden)

• Siebenbürgische Genealogie SibiWebOnline-Forum für Siebenbürgen

• Sudetendeutsche (within the site of the German Genealogy Team)

• German genealogical associations (Addresses of the members of the Deutschen Arbeitsgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbände [DAGV])

• Die MAUS Gesellschaft für Familienforschung e.V., Bremen (Family History and genealogical Society of Bremen)

• Düsseldorfer Verein für Familienkunde e.V.

• Gesellschaft für Familienforschung in der Oberpfalz e.V (GFO) Sitz Regensburg

• Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Saarländische Familienkunde e.V. (ASF)

• Arbeitskreis donauschwäbischer Familienforscher e.V. (AkdFf)

• Bayerischer Landesverein für Familienkunde e.V. (BLF)

• Verein für Familien- und Wappenkunde in Württemberg und Baden e.V.

• Arbeitskreis Familienforscher Herrenberg im Verein für Familien- und Wappenkunde in Württemberg und Baden e.V.

• Vereinigung Sudetendeutscher Familienforscher (VSFF)

• Arbeitsgemeinschaft ostdeutscher Familienforscher e.V. (AGoFF)

• Arbeitsgemeinschaft für mitteldeutsche Familienforschung e.V. (AMF)

• Gesellschaft für Familienkunde in Kurhessen und Waldeck e.V.

• Verein zur Förderung EDV-gestützter familienkundlicher Forschungen e. V.

• Pomeranian Society of Freistadt, USA

• Upstalsboom-Gesellschaft (Ostfriesische Genealogie)

• Hessische familiengeschichtliche Vereinigung e. V., Darmstadt

• Germans From Russia Heritage Society

• Swiss Genealogical Societies

• Sektion Genealogie des Arbeitskreis für Siebenbürgische Landeskunde

• Roland zu Dortmund e.V.

• Verein für Familienforschung in Ost- und Westpreußen (VFFOW)

• Arbeitskreis Familienforschung Ahlen und Umgebung e.V (Kreis Warendorf und angrenzende Gebiete [südöstliches Münsterland])

• Genealogical associations in USA

• Forschungsstelle Niedersächsische Auswanderer in den USA (research institute for emigration from Lower Saxony to USA)

• Historic Emigration Office, Hamburg

• Names of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Emigrants 1844-1915

• Index to Palatine passenger lists

• Emigration from Bühlertal, Baden

II) Databases:

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III) Secondary genealogical sources:

A) Archives

B) Parish book lists online

C) Online libraries catalogues

D) Newspapers and Magazines

E) Publishers, bookstores, antiquarian bookstores online

F) Online town locator

G) Online phone books and CD-ROMs

H) Sources of supply for historical /detailed maps

Using Archives: A Practical Guide for Researchers, National Archives of Canada
• Germany:

  Archives in Germany (addresses, partially technical equipment and stock; publications from / about archives) by Andreas Hanacek, Stuttgart, Germany

  Archives in Pommern by Gunthard Stuebs, Germany

  Civil Archives Libraries and Museums of Saxony for Genealogy and Family History by Jon Kehrer, Canberra, Australia

• Austria:

  Archives in Austria (addresses) by Andreas Hanacek, Stuttgart, Germany

• Czech Republik

  Archives in the Czech Republic (Addresses) by Dora Selig, Zürich, Schwitzerland (within the site of the German Genealogy Team)

  Archives in the Czech Republic, by IHFF, Vienna

• Germany:
  Bistum Osnabrück by Frank von Hagel
  Familienarchiv Papsdorf (area Leipzig - Altenburg - Döbeln)
  

• Poland:
  German Genealogy Sources in Poland, A - K and German Genealogy Sources in Poland, L - Z by Schroeder & Fuelling GbR, Gummersbach, Germany

• other areas:
  Microfilmed parish books of the Sudetenland area at Leipzig by Dora Selig

• Headwords for Online Library Research in German Libraries

  Lists / indexes:

• List of the online accessable library catalogues in Germany , University Köln

• List of the online accessable library catalogues in Germany , University Hannover

• Online catalogues in Austria

• Index of the online accessable Library catalogues in Switzerland

• Further index of the online accessable Library catalogues in Switzerland

• Index of the online accessable Library catalogues worldwide: Libweb (Library Servers via WWW)

  For the following regions are especially recommended:

• Germany (complete area):

  Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog (KVK) der Universitätsbibliothek Karlsruhe (search engine combining several online catalogues)

• Baden-Württemberg, southern part of Rheinland-Pfalz, Sachsen:

  Südwestdeutscher Bibliotheksverbund, Konstanz (WWW-OPAC, around 4.000.000 titles from 986 libraries)
  Information about the Südwestdeutscher Bibliotheksverbund via WWW

• Bayern:

  Bibliotheks-Verbund Bayern

• Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thüringen

  Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund der Länder Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein und Thüringen

• Hessen, Rheinhessen

  Hessisches Bibliotheks-Informationssystem (HEBIS)

• Nordrhein-Westfalen

  Hochschulbibliothekszentrum des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen

• Berlin, Brandenburg

  Bibliotheksverbund Berlin-Brandenburg

• Saarland:

  Sabine -Saarländische Bibliographie online

• Austria:

  Online research in the Austrian library net (WWW-OPAC)

• Switzerland:

  Online research in the Swiss National Library Bern (WWW-OPAC)

• Stocks of German literature in USA:

  Online-catalogue of the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., USA

A list of old German newspapers and magazines is given by the following (German) publication:
Sperlings Zeitschriften-Adressbuch Handbuch der deutschen Presse, Die wichtigsten deutschen Zeitschriften und politischen Zeitungen Deutschlands, Deutsch-Österreichs und des europäischen Auslands; Verlag des Börsenvereins der Deutschen Buchhändler zu Leipzig; Leipzig; 50. Ausgabe; 1923; 410 + 64 S.
[Sperlings Magazine Addressbook; handbook of the German press, the most important German magazines and newspapers of Germany, the Austrian-Empire and Europe; 50th edition; 1923]
For storage locations see: Online library catalogues

• German publishers with genealogical or local history publications

• German pulishers and bookstores online

• Verzeichnis lieferbarer Bücher (largest German database with all buyable books of the Deutschen Buchhandel; [only for publication with ISBN- or ISSN-number])

• KNO (Koch, Neff & Oetinger & Co. GmbH) Katalog (another large online database with deliverable German books)

• Verband Deutscher Antiquare e.V. (association of German antiquarians)
  
  see also: Verband Deutscher Antiquare e.V.; Mitgliederverzeichnis; 1996; 113 S. (member list of the association)

• Vereinigung der Buchantiquare und Kupferstichhändler in der Schweiz (Vebuku)(association of Swiss antiquarian bookshops)

• ZENTRALES VERZEICHNIS ANTIQUARISCHER BÜCHER (online catalouge of several German antiquarian bookshops)

• Das Antiquariatsnetz(online catalouge of some German antiquarian bookshops)

• Antiquarian Books on the Internet (German language area)

• DINO - Bücher - Antiquariate (German language area)

  See also: Commercial offers

• Germany:

  Information about GEOserv by Arthur Teschler, Gießen, Deutschland

  see also:
  ABBREVIATIONS FROM RUDOLPH'S "ORTSLEXIKON" by Gordon McDaniel

• Verzeichnis deutscher Orte (Directory of 125.000 German cities and places; extract from "Müllers Großes Deutsches Ortsbuch")

• Ortsverzeichnis des ehemaligen Königreiches Württemberg (Listing of locations of the former Kingdom Wurtemberg)

• Hohenzollern (Baden-Württemberg) placename list by Josef Ramsperger, Germany

• Publications: Ortsbücher, Ortlexika, Ortsverzeichnisse (place name listings)

  For the identification and localization of former German territorial expressions (e.g. dukedoms, kingdoms) you might have a look at the following publication::
  Köbler, Gerhard; Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder; Die deutschen Territorien vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (Beck's Historische Bibliothek); Beck, C H; 5. vollst. überarb. Aufl. 1995; XL,796 S.; ISBN 3-406-39858-8 (Historical encyclopedia of the German countries; the German territories from the Middle Ages to the present)

• Germany
  • D-Info; by: TopWare PD-Service GmbH, Quadrat O 3.2 , 68161 Mannheim, Germany, Fax +49/621/1267333
    * Version 1.0; Stand: Juni 1995; unverb. Preisempf. 49,95 DM
    * Version 2.0, Stand Januar 1996; unverb. Preisempf. 49,95 DM
    * Version 3.0, Stand Juni 1996; unverb. Preisempf. 49,95 DM
    * Version 97, Stand 1997; unverb. Preisempf. 49,95 DM

  • TeleInfo CD, by: TeleInfo Verlag GmbH, Carl-Zeiss-Str. 27, 30827 Garbsen, Tel.: 05131-94822
    * Version 1.0; Stand September 1995; 34 Millionen Telefon-Teilnehmer, 3 Millionen Business-Adressen, 3fach CD mit den Teilbereichen Nord/Ost, West, Süd, Pro Teil-CD bereichsweite Suche nach einem Familiennamen möglich; ISBN 3-930945-18-5; ca. 50 DM
    * Version Spezial 2.0; Stand: 05/96; ISBN 3-930945-25-8; ca. 50 DM
    * Version XX2; Stand: 1997; ISBN 3-930945-38-x; ca. 35-50 DM

  • Telefonbuch für Deutschland; by:: DeTEMedien GmbH;
    * Version 1.0; ISBN 3-931424-09-x; unverb. Preisempf. 29.95 DM (Stand Februar 1996)
    * Frühjahr 1997; ISBN 3-931424-37-5; unverb. Preisempf. 29,50 DM (Stand Februar 1997)

    * Frühjahr 1998; ISBN 3-931424-50-2; unverb. Preisempf. 29,95 DM (Stand: Januar 1998)

• Austria:

  Elektronisches Telefonbuch im Internet der Post & Telekom Austria (Autrian online phone book)
  CD-ROM:
  

  • A-Info - Adress- und Telefonauskunft Österreich - ; by: TopWare PD-Service GmbH, Quadrat O 3.2 , 68161 Mannheim, Deutschland, Fax +49/621/1267333
    * Version 1.0; Stand: 01./96; über 3 Millionen Teilnehmereinträge; unverb. Preisempf. 39.95 DM

• Switzerland:

  !!! unfortunately no longer publically accessable !!!
  Online research in the Swiss phone book (Access with etv, research via telnet)

• Index of Online Phone Books Worldwide

• Germany:

  Addresses of the German land surveying offices

  Furtheron are the following maps online available:
  Germany in 1378
  Germany in 1547
  Germany in 1648

  A good survey of the historical development of the different German poitical and administrational areas is given by the following publication:
  W. F. Putzgers Historischer Schulatlas, Große Ausgabe, bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Max Pehle, Hans Silberborth und Martin Iskraut; Verlag von Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld und Leipzig; 53. Ausgabe; 1936
  (Antiquarian School Atlas which should be loanable in bigger libraries or purchable via Antiquarian bookstores or German fleemarkets)

IV) Newsgroups

• newsgroup: soc.genealogy.computing (Questions to computer genealogy, most postings in English)

• newsgroup: soc.genealogy.german (Genealogy of the German language area, most postings in English)

• newsgroup: soc.genealogy.methods (general questions to methods of worldwide genealogy , most postings in English)

• newsgroup: soc.genealogy.misc (Miscellaneous to worldwide genealogy , most postings in English)

• newsgroup: soc.genealogy.slavic (Miscellaneous to the genealogy of the Easteuropean countries [also former German areas] , most postings in English)

• newsgroup: soc.genealogy.surnames (moderated newsgroup for worldwide research on certain surnames / single persons , most postings in English)

V) Mailing lists

see also GEOGRAPHIC/NON-USA MAILING LISTS, GERMANY
• SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE GENEALOGY - "ONLINE" RESEARCHER LIST by Norbert Bambach, USA

  Regions included, but not limited to: Banat, Batschka, Slovenia, Syrmien, Schwaebisch Turkei (Komitat Baranya), and other areas setttled by Germans in Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, ....
  The list contains research results and search inquiries of researchers of that area, however is mainly containing material of Danube-Swabian [Donauschwaben] heritage.
  Available as WWW-Version

• GER-RUS listserv -- located at the North Dakota State University

  This mail discussion group focuses on German ancestors in Russia, especially those who emigrated to the Volga, Odessa and Bessarabia regions in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Most members are also members of either the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) and/or the Germans from Russia Historical Society (GRHS), but this is not required to participate in the discussions.
  To join, send mail to LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU with the body of the message
  

  SUBscribe GER-RUS your_full_name
  
  The list is fully archived.

• German-Bohemian mailing list

  The German-Bohemian mailing list is a discussion group for those interested in sharing information about the culture, genealogy and heritage of the German-speaking people of Bohemia and Moravia, now Czech Republic. This list was founded in August of 1996 by Paula Goblirsch (pmg@boombox.micro.umn.edu), Robert Paulson (RPaulGBHS@aol.com) and Dora Selig (dselig@sd.id.ethz.ch).
  We ask that new subscribers post a list of the names and villages that they are researching. Submissions can in German or English.
  To post messages to everyone on this mailing list, use the following address:
  

  german-bohemian-l@rootsweb.com
  
  To subscribe to this list, send a message containing only the word SUBSCRIBE to
  
  german-bohemian-l-request@rootsweb.com
  
  If you ever need to unsubscribe to the mailing list, send the word UNSUBSCRIBE to the above address.
  For technical problems regarding mailing list software (SmartList) please address Paula Goblirsch (pmg@boombox.micro.umn.edu).

  The group is also maintaining a surname list database of the subscribers research results

VI) Commercial offers

Annotation: The following commercial offers are only a listing of online offers related to German genealogy. I'm not connected in any way to one of these offers and the fact of listing an offer is not a recommendation for one of the services. There's no claim for being listed here and the listing can be refused or cancelled at any time.

Genealogists:
• Schroeder & Fuelling GbR, Gummersbach, Germany
  
  German professional genealogists

• Sabine Schleichert, Tübingen, Germany
  
  professional genealogist for South Germany

• Institut für Historische Familienforschung, Austria
  
  professional genealogists with areas: present day Austria, (especially Vienna and Waldviertel area; general index of all catholic marriages of Vienna from 1542 to 1850/60 with over 800.000 data records), present day Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Western Hungaria, Slovenia (especially archives at Marburg, but also at Laibach), South Tyrolia

• Tobias Weber - Genealogie, specialist for genealogy of East Bavaria

  Heraldry:

• Armorial Heritage Foundation, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
  
  specialized in German heraldry

• Atelier Galloway, Luzern, Schweiz
  
  Genealogy, heraldry, paintings, illustrations

  Other offers (esp. Translations and Genealogical Books):

• Oliver Weiss Historical Translations, USA
  
  specialized in translation of historical documents with the old German script

• German-English Letter Translation Specialists (Old German Script),
  Getting you started in genealogical research locating places of origin in East and West including those in pre-war Silesia

• Document Translation, by James R. Delaney, USA
  

• DutchFest On-line BOOKSTORE , USA
  
  German Genealogy & Pennsylvania Dutch Shelves

• Degener Verlag & Co. presented by Waldenfont, USA
  

• Frontier Press Bookstore Germany
  

• C.A. Starke Verlag
  

• Zeitschrift Computergenealogie
  
  (Zeitschrift für die Anwendung von Mikrocomputern in der Familienforschung) (German magazine dealing with the use of computers in German genealogy research)

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VII) Genealogy software

Note: As I'm using not a single of the following software applications I'm not able to give any advice on them!

• List of genealogy software with German masks

• Stammbaum 4.0

• Ahnenchronik

• WIN-ELKE - Software für den Familienforscher

• FamilyTreeMaker online

• GED2HTML, A GEDCOM to HTML Translator by Gene Stark

• GED2WWW, a free GEDCOM to HTML converter

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Appendix A) Other surveys to genealogy worldwide

The following links are pointing to surveys which are listing nearly all other available internet resources related to genealogy worldwide:
• Matthew Helm's Genealogy Toolbox especially Germany

• Genweb Database Index by Tim Doyle

• Genealogy resources on the Internet by Chris Gaunt and John Fuller

• Genealogy resources on the Internet by Paula M. Goblirsch

• Arcadian Genealogy

  Other interesting projects for regional genealogy WWW-pages:
  

• GenUKI-Project (genealogy in UK and Ireland)

• Genealogy in Scandinavia

• Swiss Genealogy pages

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Appendix B) Search engines

Except from Altavista are all Search engines dealing with German WWW-Pages
• Altavista (worldwide)

• Fireball

• DINO - Wissenschaft - Genealogie (DINO = Deutsches InterNet-Organisationssystem)

• Yahoo Deutschland: Genealogie

• Lycos Deutschland

• Crawler Deutschland

• T-online: Suche in privaten hompages