do you have german ancestry??

[nighty]

if you are searching your german family roots
maybe this site can help,
i didn't understand all
but it seems as if they have a lot of information
German ancestry

[absolutartist1]

Thanks! I've passed this site on to my dad as he's the one who works on this!

[Joba2]

Yes I have German Ancestry.I can never understand their sites because of the language barrier.Does one have to hire some historian to research for you?

[TrishF]

Thank you for the link to try and find out more about my German ancestry. My Great grandmother was pregnant with my grandmother when they emmigrated to the United States. She (Mutty) was very involved in my father's family life and I was fortunate enough to have known her during my childhood.

[scrappinmama]

You don't have to hire a German researcher to research German ancestry. You just have to know that basic German words for birth, death and marriage. I do speak German so it isn't a problem for me, but it helps to know the basic German words and you can do it yourself.

[TrishF]

Another helpful idea is if you have an LDS library near you. They offer workbooks that help you to decipher other languages when researching your family in other countries.

[MoosieD]

Thank you for posting the information about this site. I am going to take a look at it and hopefully find some further information about my German ancestors who came to South Africa as part of the Bergtheil settlement. My 3X Great Grandfather is somewhat of a mystery, and all of the German archives/societies I have contacted are less than eager to assist.

[Min]

Here are some more links you might find helpful searching for your German Ancestors:

Ancestry.de - database links
Digital Library of GenWiki
Search engine of Ahnenforschung.net

[MsKaty]

Thanks for the links! I have hit some brick walls with all my German ancestry but will look some more! I was lucky enough to have traveled to the towns where some ancestors lived, even saw their home and church. Such a thrill.

[donakat]

One of the most comprehensive sources of information is the holdings of the Family History Library, whose collection of parish records are on microfilm and available for rental to any Family History Center across the US, Europe, etc. If you already know the village your ancestors came from, you can look it up in the library catalog (available online at FamilySearch.org) to see what films are available, then rent and read away. As scrappinmama mentioned, you CAN do this even if you don't speak German, if you care to learn a few words, learn how to decipher German script, and have the time. It's rewarding to do this and discover your roots by yourself, but if you can't, then you can hire researchers to do this for you.

Of course, there's lots of research to be done in your own country and language to make sure you've covered all the bases of what information is available before jumping into research in German records.

[msbrad]

Thank you.
m

[SnipsNSnails]

While I'm not the one that does geneology, that's my grandfather, German ancestry can be difficult at times due to the loss of records during WWII. My grandfather recounts how he hit a wall when the records he needed were in a builing that was destroyed by bombing during the war. Ironically, he was a radio operator and also recalled having been the person who called for the airstrike that likely destroyed that building!

[rabbitrun]

I'll have to check that one out. I have great great grandparents who arrived in the US Aug 21 1850, just before Ellis Island became active. I know they came and have the ship's passenger list. I know where they went, but the father had to have died between the 1850 and 1860 census. I can find some of the children in 1870 in Boston MA, but there are a lot of questions. They came from a part of what was then Silesia Prussia, or Germany and had been so for about 900 years but is now part of Poland (Wroclaw?) and finding records there has proven nearly impossible. Maybe this will have more links. I believe they were Catholic when they left and though the church records would help but that has not proven useful. I went to Berlin 2 years ago and met a friend who was also born in Wroclaw, but we were not able to go and check it out physically. I'm still hoping he may be able to do so some day. Maybe this site will work. The family history center has no records that I've been able to find either, so I'll try this one. Thank you.
Karen

[ADBDesign {anita_d}]

great info here!

[MN_Scrapper]

Thanks for this link. I do have some German ancestry and recently found some documents in German that a friend helped me translate. Always so fascinating.

[NancyP]

Oh my!! Thank you so much. My husband and all his ancestry come from Berlin Germany. I have worked on my own heritage on Ancestry.com but they want another $23.00 if you want to get info from another country and I just can't afford that!! I am going to start researching all the links you have posted! Thanks, again!!

[ev65roses]

Have any of you with German heritage have children or descendants with Cystic Fibrosis? My sister and I married the Cage brothers, their mother was a Seus of German decent. We are trying to find out if anyone had this disease years ago. The Germans called it the kiss of death since the skin was very salty at birth. Newborns don't sweat so they knew the baby was not going to thrive.

[Pauli]

If anybody needs translation of words, or articles, I can do them for you. Depending on what happens in life, I will try and get it back to you, within a couple of days.

[heidi]

My heritage is the Germans from Russia, the groups that left Germany to settle in Russia under Catherine, then came to the US in the 1860s. There were two main settlement areas, the Volga Germans and the Black Sea Germans. My family comes from the Black Sea group. Before that, the paternal side of my father's family came from the Prussian/Polish border area, and the maternal side was Bavarian, from near Nuremberg. We've been unable to trace it back farther than the late 18th century, sadly.

All the Weispfennings in North America are descended from 2 cousins, so any of us that share the name are related. Plus, thanks to the internet, we've not only regained contact with the family still in Germany, but in some cases you can still see a distinct family resemblance!

[donakat]

Originally Posted by heidi

My heritage is the Germans from Russia, the groups that left Germany to settle in Russia under Catherine, then came to the US in the 1860s. There were two main settlement areas, the Volga Germans and the Black Sea Germans. My family comes from the Black Sea group. Before that, the paternal side of my father's family came from the Prussian/Polish border area, and the maternal side was Bavarian, from near Nuremberg. We've been unable to trace it back farther than the late 18th century, sadly.

All the Weispfennings in North America are descended from 2 cousins, so any of us that share the name are related. Plus, thanks to the internet, we've not only regained contact with the family still in Germany, but in some cases you can still see a distinct family resemblance!

Heidi, do you know about the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection (in Fargo, ND), http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc or the Germans from Russia Heritage Society, http://www.grhs.org ? There are other online resources as well, but usually the best collections of source material that will help you are in society libraries. Not enough of this material has been digitized and available online to make it the only place you should conduct your research. With more and more of the Family History Library's collections getting digitized and put online, this will change, but there are treasures to be found in society libraries that should not be overlooked!