Author Archives: Gordon

A German discussion of Ancestry.com

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I haven’t investigated what I’ve read in a German mailing list, but it sure is interesting (and I’ve seen similar comments before):

(translated) “In the collection Rheinland are hidden, among other things, military church books from East Prussia, church books from Leipzig and much more….”

Germans are divided on Ancestry.com, with several being critical of transcription errors by persons unfamiliar with the locality of the documents, and (of course) of errors in family trees that are then perpetuated by others.  Generally, however, they recognize that using it with care is far preferable than having to travel to read documents the old way.

Moral of the story:  It’s always good to explore online resources thoroughly!

International German Genealogy ‘Connections’ Conference in July

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Here is a summary of developments:

Early, discounted registration runs through March: $225 for individuals belonging to organizations that are members of the International German Genealogy Partnership (formerly German-American Genealogical Partnership), and $250 for all others. If you’re a member in good standing of the IGS, then you qualify for the discount.  Regular registration begins April 1 at the standard rate, $299.  The general conference information is here.

Hotel rooms at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest Hotel in Brooklyn Park, Minn., venue for the conference, sold out in December. Additional nearby hotels are offering special rates for conference attendees. Go here for hotel information and room reservations, and find the link to the hotels at the very bottom of the page.

“This may be one of the largest German genealogy events ever held in the United States,” said officials of the Minnesota-based Germanic Genealogy Society, host of conference and a co-founder of the Partnership, which is organizing the conference.

Irish Family Research — Online Workbook (FREE)

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“Upfront with NGS” is the blog for the National Genealogical Society.  Every so often they post something that really gets a person to sit up and take notice.  Such is the case with an offering today on an online Irish Family Research Workbook.  This has been produced by the National Archives of Ireland, and their link to the Workbook is on the “Upfront” page that you’ll get when you click the line above….

If you’re not a member of NGS, please consider joining!  They help keep us connected.

News you can use….

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The International German Genealogy Partnership (IGGP) is now online, and while it is still new and undergoing modifications you’ll want to bookmark it and refer to it often.

When you’re at the IGGP homepage, don’t overlook the information available in the sidebar with reference to our 2017 Conference.  Brochures are available for download here, or you may pick up a paper copy at the IGS Library in Burbank.

Lastly, the IGGP has a booth in the Exhibit Hall for RootsTech in Salt Lake City this week.  The purpose is to promote the Partnership — now at 32 organizational members & growing — and to make attendees aware of the upcoming conference.  Societies that will staff this booth for the three days (Thursday through Saturday) are the DAGV, the Germanic Genealogy Society (of Minnesota), the Sacramento German Genealogy Society, the Ostfriesen Genealogical Society of America, and your Immigrant Genealogical Society.

Conference Registration is approaching…

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As many of you may be aware, our International German Genealogy Partnership will hold a conference in Minnesota in late July this year.  Some of you have made hotel reservations, but have wondered when it would be possible to actually register for the conference….

Now this will soon become possible.  A news release tells the story, here.  But be careful about testing the new IGGP website, as it won’t be operational for about another two weeks or so.  Check back closer to the end of the month, and watch for the paper registration materials at your IGS offices and library.  This conference is going to be GREAT, and your society will be well-represented!

The Joy of Digging Deeper — A “Christmas Present” !!

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I’m always looking for that “new thing” that makes it all worthwhile exploring the wonderful world of German genealogy.  Which, for this mostly monolingual American, can indeed make me feel at times like Indiana Jones!  And today was one of those days.  Come with me as I retrace my steps….

In my email inbox from before dawn this morning was this daily digest of my German mailing list for East Prussia:  OW-Preussen-L Nachrichtensammlung, Band 147, Eintrag 78.  The very first item caught my attention, partly because it contained a link to a webpage somewhere, and these are often interesting.  Furthermore, I did not fully understand the subject line:

Subject: Re: [OWP] Bedeutung von Zahlen und Buchstaben in Prästationstabellen

and that raised my curiosity.  What was that strange word, “Prästationstabellen”?  It does not appear in either Ernest Thode’s German-English Genealogical Dictionary, or my cherished 1936 edition of Cassell’s New German and English Dictionary.  And Google Translate said only that it meant “pre-station tables.”  Which means what, exactly?  I had no idea.  And so I went to the link in the message to see where it would take me.  And I found myself at:

1.  GenWiki Portal:Pillkallen (for Kreis Pillkallen – Schloßberg)
This didn’t appear to be related, on the face of it, and so I went looking for that word.  In the fourth section, pertaining to history & population, there it is — buried part way down the list of links — that strange word, “Prästationstabellen.”  Clicking the second link takes us to a further page:

2.  Hinweise zu den Prästationstabellen und Mühlenconsignationen, Erläuterungen von Prof. Erwin Spehr.
And near the top is this statement, first in German and then in “my” translation (using the above-named sources):

Prästationstabellen (PT) sind Listen, in denen die laufenden Abgaben (Prästationen) der besitzenden ländlichen Bevölkerung an das Domänenamt aufgeführt sind.  Da diese Abgaben nur von Grundbesitzern erhoben wurden, sind in diesen Tabellen lediglich Bauern, Handwerker und Eigenkätner namentlich aufgeführt, nicht jedoch z.B. Landarbeiter.  Auch wurden Bauern und besitzende Bürger der Städte sowie Bewohner und Bauern adliger und geistlicher Territorien nicht erfasst, weil diese dem Domänenamt gegenüber keine Verpflichtungen hatten.

Pre-station tables (PT) are lists in which the current taxes (pre-stations) of the propertied rural population are listed at the (state-owned) estate offices.  Since these were levied only by landowners, only peasants, craftsmen, and cottagers with their own garden are mentioned in these tables.  Farm workers, peasants and wealthy citizens of the cities as well as inhabitants and peasants of noble and spiritual territories were not included because they had no obligations to the estate office.

So there it is — a new type of German document of which I had been unaware.  Placed in the IGS Library vertical files in the folder covering miscellaneous document types, it may perhaps smooth the way for a researcher seeking answers.  Merry Christmas!!

2017 Desk Calendar

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The Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE) has produced a 2017 desk calendar featuring photos of Germans in Poland.
This project was done in collaboration with one of their members in Germany, whose father was an editor and photographer among Germans in Poland and Volhynia early in the 20th century. His surviving photo archive has been donated to the Herder-Institut in Marburg.
SGGEE has these calendars available for sale using PayPal in North America and invites anyone with an interest to visit their website for further details. It makes a quality gift for anyone whose German ancestors lived in Poland in the 1930s. Please note that this webpage also contains information in German about where to purchase copies in Europe.

James Beidler’s article

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We’re fortunate to have friends in high places!!  Free-lance writer and German genealogy lecturer James M. Beidler has just written about the Immigrant Genealogical Society for German Life magazine — DECEMBER/JANUARY 2017 issue — and it’s a nice treatment of who we are and what a treasure we have in our Library.  Go pick up a copy at your chain bookstore’s magazine racks.  This issue is rich with feature articles you’ll also want to see; “Beautiful Erfurt!” is one of them….  Consider sending in a subscription for yourself or a family member!!

Ortssippenbücher collection lists!

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It’s been a struggle to find and upload the lists we had years ago to help researchers identify the town heritage books we have in our collection.  But it’s finally done!

Go to the Resources tab on this homepage, and click on it.  There are just two lists, one which gives all towns in alpha order, and one that first breaks them down by home region before alphabetizing them.  But to see these books further organized according the regional jurisdictions, go to the appropriate Finding Aid for the region.  Here’s how:

If you want to select one of our older newsletters to view, or if you want to check out our Library Finding Aids, then use the pull-down feature of the Resources tab to see these more complex options.  In each Finding Aid, the Ortssippenbücher are arranged within jurisdictions, so that if you know the ones for your town [find them at meyersgaz.org] you can see which other towns “nearby” are included in our collection….

A Book on Immigrants from Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

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I first heard German researcher and author Astrid Adler (Tiefenort, Thuringia, Germany) speak to the Ventura County Genealogical Society in April of this year.  Some six million Germans emigrated in the 19th c., and some were from her region…and not a few were from her town!  Her extensive research into this local emigration and its causes led to an exhibition on the subject — for which she was honored by her state in 2012.  Her talk covering the high points of her German-language book on the topic was informative, entertaining, and definitely well-received.  Now she has published an English-language version for American readers.

Our Ancestors Were German: Emigration in the 19th Century from Grand Duchy Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach is an attractive volume that adequately covers this broad subject of emigration/immigration from a variety of perspectives.  She plans to promote the book beginning with a first presentation in Ventura County on January 14th at 11 am at the Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum, on Market St.  In May, a book tour will formally begin with stops in Southern California and in the Washington, DC area.

Orders for the book may be placed here.  Full information about all of her books (including a forthcoming one) may be found on that page as well.  A list of the towns from which the emigrants originated, as well as the states in which they located, may be found here.

New Maps – Always Welcome!

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The library has received three nice maps from Jean Kuehneman of Napa, CA.  She wrote that she was “clearing out my genealogy files” (How many of us need to do that??), and “found several maps that are too important to toss out….”  Thanks, Jean!!  We appreciate your thinking of us.

There is a map of the eastern Baltic countries, and a Polish map showing the portion of the country that used to be Pommern.  But the third one is in 1:50,000 scale — very detailed — and depicts the coastal area of Germany northeast of Rostock.  This is roughly the small region from Ribnitz-Damgarten to Barth, and a bit beyond.  There were “sticky notes” on it marking two villages of interest, showing that the map had been acquired with an eye to research.

Jean is concerned that she has few relatives who share her love for research, …relatives to whom she could pass along her collection for future preservation.  It’s a question we all face:  What to do with what we’ve carefully assembled over many years?  And so she’s doing the best she can to see that items get to where they might still be used.  We welcome such donations, and we’d welcome readers’ thoughts as to how to preserve family research notes, letters, photos, family lore, etc. etc.

Please reply to the webmaster if you have suggestions to share….

“German-American Genealogy,” 2016

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The 2016 issue of German-American Genealogy is at the printer now!  Four articles are in this issue, as follows:

“East German Colonization in the Middle Ages,” by James Westfall Thompson
“The Banat Swabians:  A Tale of Perpetual Hardship, Survival and Hope,”
by Alexandria Irimia
“Meyer’s Gazeteer Now Online, Indexed and Fully Searchable!”
by Fritz Juengling PhD, AG
“The Germans in Missouri,” by Jana Bickel

For members of IGS during the 2016 year, this issue should reach your mailbox around mid-December.  Other articles are in various stages of preparation for the next issue, possibly one for Spring 2017.

Do you have an interest in writing for it?  Many topics could be considered, but especially welcome would be more articles describing German colonies or emigrant regional groupings, such as suggested by the second and fourth articles listed above.  Please contact the webmaster or editor, if interested.