IGS Presents...

The Immigrant Genealogical Society has a long history of researching in German archives, beginning with our founders and the members who traveled to their homelands with them. But times have changed since the days when one always had to appear in person. Those researchers acquired printed guides to the holdings of which remain on our shelves for reference.

Presentation

Yet today it is wiser to delve directly into what is available online! Our lecturer aims to empower participants to a advance their own research by presenting an overview of the structures of archival resources in Germany, and how those resources can be found online. The lecture will address not only archives of state and religious institutions, but also archives in the sense of databases of information compiled by associations and societies focused on understanding their German ancestry.

Dirk Weissleder

Beginning from first steps in family history research taken in 1982, he is well acquainted with the current state of German archives, having most recently used them to extend his research into his family name back to the late Middle Ages.

Dirk has been the chairman of the Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbände e. V. (DAGV), the national umbrella organization of German genealogical & heraldic societies, since 2012, and he was elected General Secretary of the World Federation of Genealogy and Heraldry (CIGH) in 2019. He is also 2nd Vice-President of of the the International German Genealogy Partnership (IGGP), and Secretary of the International Academy for Genealogy (AIG).