Show Notes & Video: Finding your German ancestor’s village is key to finding the genealogical records you need to go further back in your family tree. In this session you’ll learn:

How and why it is important to know the “Heimat” because many records are kept on the local level.
How to de garble a village name that is handed down to you (a common problem!)
Records to search for village names.
Resources for finding those records.

My guest presenter is James Beidler. He’s an expert on German genealogy and was gracious enough to share his expertise in the Genealogy Gems booth at Rootstech a few years ago. Visit James Beidler’s website. Get the book: The Family Tree Historical Atlas of Germany. (Thank you for using our affiliate link which supports this free content.)

Watch the Video

Show Notes

Downloadable ad-free Show Notes handout for Premium Members.

Researching your ancestors deep into Germany simply doesn’t happen unless you know the name of the village of origin. This presentation goes over the sources to tie your immigrant to a Heimat and then find the village and its records! HIghlighted in this article are the strategies and resources referred to in this video.

German Methodologies Review:

Your first job is to find every document of the immigrant ancestor or that mentions the immigrant ancestor:

Prepare for surname variants
“Redundancy” is a virtue (e.g., obit may well have something tombstone does not)
Even items such as letters and diaries might give clues!
Be prepared for village names to be corrupted
Familiarize yourself with German maps / gazetteers
Look for “patterns of association” with other individuals
Process any piece of information that might distinguish the immigrant (e.g., occupation, names of other family members, etc.)

Utilize “whole family” genealogy

If specific records don’t exist for your ancestor, try others in family

Look for published sources

1700s families: Burgert / Jones / Yoder / Hacker
1800s families: Burkett / Germans to America / Emigration indexes

Search International Genealogical Index

Search for:

References to individual
References to clusters of the surname if it is not common
References to shipmates
References to “associated persons”

Look for other sources of immigrant information:

Heitmatstelle Pfalz immigrant card file
Hamburg embarkation lists
German phonebooks
Google searches

Use the “concentric circles” strategy

If a village is found for the above categories of people (surname, shipmates, associated persons) but your immigrant is not found …
… work out from that village in “concentric circles” to other surrounding villages

“Things found on the way to something else”

Machmer / Magemer / Mahomer example
Never turn away luck!

Types of records that might yield a place of origin:

Naturalizations
Declarations of intent (“first papers”) Naturalization petitions (“final papers”)
Baptisms of children
Marriage Records
Church burial records
Tombstone
Obituaries
U.S. Census
Family Bibles
Family Registers
Fraternal societies’ records
Enlistment papers
Discharge Papers
Pension documents
Letters from relatives
Postmarks on letters

Internet Websites Resources for German Research

The resources listed below can help us answer some of the most common questions we ask as genealogists. Some examples of the questions and Websites that will help: