help finding ancestors

[Michelle Bie]

This isn't about my ancestors from Denamrk. But I am hoping someone can tell me the best way to begin searching for ancestors in Germany when you aren't sure exactly where they came from?

[Eva Morfiadakis]

Hello Michelle,

Search familysearch at first.

Germany is a very tricky country to find relatives in since the access rules to the archives are very strict. As a matter of fact Germany is a country consisting of states with different access rules and to get the information you have to pay. Without the name of the place I would say it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. No much is on-line.

Eva M

[Paul Løndahl-Smidt]

Hi Eva,

I don't know whether this will help or not.  I had great grandparents who were from Germany but like you, I had no idea where in Germany.  I found that they were married in Brooklyn, New York in 1885 and ordered the microfilm from the Family History Library of the 1885 Brooklyn marriage licenses.  When I looked at the marriage license, it did not have any information about where they were born but I googled the name of the person who performed the marriage.  It turned out he was a Lutheran minister and it gave the name of the church he was pastor of in 1885.  I called the church and they sent me a scan of their record of the marriage, and it listed the birthplaces of both my great grandparents.

Paul

[Eva Morfiadakis]

Paul,

I didn't ask. It's Michelle. But your suggestions sound good.

Eva M

[Michelle Bie]

Thank you for the suggestions. I sure wish Germany was like Denmark's records. I'm glad only one lineage of my family came from Germany. We don't know much about that part of the family, my grandfather abandoned my Mom and grandmother, so my great grandparents raised my Mom and right or wrong they refused to allow any of his family to have contact with my Mom.

Again thanks for the help.

Michelle

[Per Kühlwein]

Hello Michelle

It,s right, using the archives is hard and almost impossible. But if you are a bit lucky it is possible to get a lot of information from printed books and internet.

You can test the possibilities by searching the actual names at different library homepages. Try to tell us a name or two. But anyway:

1. I would test the name here: http://www.gedbas.de/
2. If it is a well-known family name, then search personal writings: http://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/
3. Then go on with the other state Libraries:
Berlin,  http://stabikat.de//
Dresden, http://www.sachsendigital.de/startseite/?type=

Actually there are plenty of possibilities, but lets know a name or two and I will try to start up for you!

Regards
Per