Looking for the German connection in family history

Looking for the

German

connection in

family history

Eileen Dwane

This session will cover:

• an overview of the SLQ family history website

• some historical factors affecting German family

history research

• common problems associated with German

family history research for Australians

• some of the resources available at SLQ and

online to assist in tracing your German

connection

SLQ Family History websitehttp://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/family-history

Online links to Info Guides

Links to:

1. Useful websites

for family

historians

2. Ancestry.com

free on site at SLQ

Who were the Germans?

• No unified country prior to 1800’s: numerous

small kingdoms, principalities & duchies

• 30 Years’ War, 1618-1648

• Invasion by neighbouring countries

• Napoleonic Wars

• 1815 Treaty of Vienna

Constantly changing boundaries

Changing boundaries 1815-1918

German Confederation

1848

North German

Confederation 1867

German Empire

1871

http://www.ieg-maps.uni-mainz.de/

Schleswig-Holstein

Source: Wikipedia Commons

12th Century 2 duchies Slesvig =Danish

Holstein =German

18th Century (1773) both Danish duchies

1864 Denmark loses both duchies

Nord Schleswig = Prussia

Holstein falls to Austria

1867 Schleswig-Holstein = Prussian

province

1920 Plebiscite:

North Schleswig = Danish

South Schleswig & Holstein = German

Changing boundaries

Implications for German family history

research:

• no central recording agency

• no consistently used language in records

• different dates for commencement of civil

registration and other records

• different details in records

• frequent place name changes

Critical to establish place of origin and an

approximate date of arrival in Australia:• exhaust Australian resources first

• look for information on places of origin in:

• family papers, BDM certificates;

• church records, immigration records;

[German] emigration records,

• naturalization records, newspapers,

• old maps and online gazetteers,

Where to start?

German names may be:

• misspelled

• filed under any element of a multi-part name,

e.g. von der Heide

• inaccurately transcribed by non-German speakers

• deliberately anglicized, e.g Hans/John;

Heinrich/Henry; Gartner/Gardener

German language in Australian

records: names

Always search flexibly and employ

wildcard options when possible

German umlaut used to modify vowels sounds

ä ö ü

• can affect filing order in alphabetic indexes

• source of frequent misspellings

• usual convention: replace as ae, oe, ue

German language in Australian

records: Umlaut

Always search flexibly and employ

wildcard options when possible

German script and

Fraktur font

Source: FamilySearch

https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/

File:German_Gothic_Handwritin

g_Guide.pdf

Australian BDM indexes

Available for all Australian States: • Variety of formats provide different search

options and results: microfiche, CD-ROM &

online

Use wildcards* whenever possible

• Date ranges and details in indexes and

certificates vary from state to state.

Check SLQ Info Guide: Births, Deaths & Marriages

Qld Pioneer index, 1829-1889.

Look for the surname König using wildcard*

Search term = K*ig

Qld BDM indexes: CD-ROM

Qld Pioneer index, 1829-1889. Look for the surname König

using wildcard* Search term = K*ig

Qld BDM indexes: CD-ROM

Qld Pioneer index, 1829-188. Look for the surname König

using wildcard* Search term = K*ig

Qld BDM indexes: CD-ROM

Australian death certificate contents

Extract from: http://www.jaunay.com/bdm.html

Baptist Archives, Queensland.

Contain little info relevant for family history research

Catholic Archives – arranged by region.

SLQ holds indexes on microfiche.

GSQ holds records for SE Qld on microfiche

Jewish records

SLQ holds Brisbane Hebrew Congregation registers of births

and marriages 1861-1946 on microfilm

Lutheran records - Lutheran Archives of Australia

http://www.lca.org.au/lutherans/archives.cfm

SLQ holds a few Lutheran parish records on microfilm.

Australian parish registers

Parish registers: Jewish

Brisbane Hebrew Congregation.

Register of Marriages 1861-1946

Available on microfilm at SLQnow: Gniezno, Poland

Parish registers: LutheranLutheran Church of Australia. Beenleigh Parish.

St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Todesregister

Date of birth

BirthplaceYear of arrival in

Brisbane

Wife’s maiden name

1. Australian immigration lists

2. German emigration lists:• departures from German ports

• not all records have survived

• details vary

3. Other resources:• naturalization records

• alien registration/internment documents

• newspapers

Immigration: how did they get here?

Australian immigration recordsAssisted passengers

• received government assistance of some kind

• detailed records but amount varies from state to state

Unassisted passengers• paid their own passage

• little detail in records

20th Century immigration• records from circa 1923 held at National Archives of

Australia http://www.naa.gov.au

Check SLQ Info guide: Immigration and shipping

Assisted immigrant: Queensland

Beausite to

Cape Moreton,

20 August, 1866

Records ‘ex- flood’

Unassisted immigrants: Queensland1. Occasionally listed on ships bringing assisted

immigrants

2. Customs House records for individual Qld ports

• held at National Archives of Australia

• most not yet indexed ; not all have survived

3. Port of Brisbane arrivals:

• QFHS Queensland Customs House shipping

1852-1885: passengers and crew (CD-ROM)

• Original records digitised on NAA website

Minimal details recorded of passengers

Assisted Immigrants to Sydney and Newcastle

1839-1896:

• Include early records for Moreton Bay and Port Phillip

• shipping lists (passenger manifests) and Immigration

Board records

• Online indexes at State Records NSW

• Ancestry.com – online index with links to digitized

records

Immigration : New South Wales

SLQ holds the records on microfilm

Assisted immigrant: New South Wales

Triton to Sydney Newcastle 1853:

Immigration Board list

Unassisted immigrant: NSW

National Archives of Australia

Immigration records Australia wide from early 1920’s

WW1 and WW2:

• Alien registration

• Alien internment

Search by name in RecordSearch www.naa.gov.au

to locate details of these files

20th Century records

Alien registration file at NAA

Carl Gustav Noack

Born 1881 at

Dresden, Saxony

Father: Carl Noack

19th century emigration of ‘Old Lutherans’ from Eastern Germany

• not based on shipping lists

• entries arranged by date, then by place of origin in Prussia

• details include name, age, occupation, maiden names of

married women

German emigration applications

• locality specific, e.g. Wuerttemberg emigration index

• no details of ship or departure date

Departure lists from German ports

Lists survive for Bremen, 1920-1939 and Hamburg 1850-1934

German emigration records: sources

Most early records destroyed

Lists for 1920-1939 survive:

• not indexed

• held at Handelskammer Archiv, Bremen

• lists transcribed and searchable online at

Die Maus

“Namenskartei aus den “Bremen Schiffslisten,

1904-1914”

• held on microfilm at FamilySearch Library

Bremen emigration records

Hamburg emigration records, 1850-1934

Access:

1. via Ancestry.com free on site at SLQ

• OCR search of digitized handwritten lists

• “Direkt” and “Indirekt records

2. Original German lists available on microfilm

through LDS Family History centres

3. Emigrants from Hamburg to Australia,1850-1879

(Eric & Rosemary Kopittke)

Kopittke indexes to emigrants from

Hamburg to Australia, 1850-1879Migrant details include: passenger number ; name

town of origin and state

occupation ; age ; sex

SLQ holds print and CD-ROM formats

Special features• records transcribed from German script

• helpful notes on place names & locations

• glossaries of German terms for occupation, etc.

• extracts from local shipping intelligence news

• Conferred same rights as British citizens

had to vote and to own land

• State responsibility pre 1904. Information

in records varies from state to state

• Federal responsibility from 1904. Records

held at National Archives of Australia

See SLQ Info Guide: Naturalisation records

Naturalisation records

Online and microfilm indexes refer to:

• notices in Qld Government Votes &

Proceedings, or

• Supreme Court files (Oaths of Allegiance)

Women not generally found in naturalisation

records

Records contain no information on arrival

and rarely any detailed place of origin

Queensland naturalisation records

Queensland. Votes & Proceedings

Qld Votes &

Proceedings,

1885, v.2, p. 232

Return of aliens

naturalized

NSW naturalisation records, 1849-1904

Include Moreton Bay naturalisations pre 1859*

Original records at State Records NSW with

online index

Digitised records via Ancestry.com

Available on microfilm at SLQ

Detailed records

NSW naturalisation record

Lothar Neunsling

• naturalised 24 March 1857

• native place “Deidesheim,

Germany”

• age 37 years

• arrived in Sydney per

Commodore Perry 1855

Moreton Bay resident pre1859

20th Century naturalization records:

National Archives of Australia (NAA)

Simple name search in NAA RecordSearch catalogue

recordsearch.naa.gov.au

• Many index records include birth place and year

• Some records digitised online

• Naturalisation files usually contain details of arrival,

exact date of birth and names of parent/s

Newspapers

Very rich resource for tracing additional details on

ancestors

1. Trove digitised newspapers

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/

2. SLQ hold an extensive collection of (mainly

Queensland) historical newspapers on microfilm and in

hard copy - not all have been digitized

Check the OneSearch catalogue for specific titles or

check printed guides to newspapers on microfilm held at

the Micrographics Desk on level 3

Types of information to be found in

obituaries:• date and place of birth and

marriage• date of arrival and name of ship• detailed description of occupations• where the deceased lived• names of other living or deceased

relatives• social activities of the deceased

Newspapers: obituaries

Details not always reliable. Always verify in other sources

Newspapers: significant anniversaries

and birthdays

Golden wedding notice gives

information on:

• year of arrival : 1886

• shipmates on the same ship

• married in Queensland 1901

• religious denomination

Case study: Making the German

connection for Mrs Caroline MurphyKnown facts:

• married John Murphy in Qld 1872

• Caroline died Qld 10 January 1924

(father: Laurence Miller; mother: Juliana Mohr)

• Juliana Miller nee Mohr died Qld 1872

(father: Amrose Mohr; mother: Margaretta Lowhs)

BUT

1. No record of birth in Australia for Caroline or either parent

2. No record of parents’ marriage in Australia

3. No record of family arrival in Australia

4. No identifiable death record for father……?

Case study: Mrs Caroline Murphy

Case study: Mrs Caroline Murphy

QFHS ‘Emigrants from Hamburg

to Australasia’ (CD-ROM)

i.e. Kopittke indexes

Search using wildcard for ‘M*ller’

to Moreton Bay 1854 and 1855

Note:

Aurora departed Hamburg in 1854

Arrived Sydney 1855

Case study: Mrs Caroline MurphyNSW Assisted Immigration

[Immigration Board] lists

State Records NSW reel 2468

Aurora to Moreton Bay 1855

Note: parents’ names match those on mother’s death index entry

ANCES-TREE: Journal of the Burwood &

District Family History GroupSeries of articles on German migrants

researched by Jenny Paterson

Locating records in Germany

After Identifying ancestor’s native place:

1. Check old maps and gazetteers for location

at relevant time period

2. Check location in modern maps for possible

change/s of name

3. Identify relevant civil and ecclesiastical

jurisdictions where records may now be held

Maps and German historical gazetteersSLQ collection of sheet maps, atlases and gazetteers

Online resources:

• Myers Ort- und Verkehrs- Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs

(1912-13) In digital format at Family History Library and via

Ancestry.com

• Gemeindelexikon fuer das Koenigreich Preussen, via

Ancestry.com

• Kartenmeister www.kartenmeister.com

for locations East of the Oder and Neisse rivers

• Atlas des Deutschen Reichs /Ludwig Ravenstein (1883)

uwdc.library.wisc.library.edu/collections/german/ravenstein

No single repository for civil registration records

Records may be located in:

• civil registration offices of local towns

• city archives

• state archives

FamilySearch Library holds civil registration records

of many towns in Germany on microfilm

Privacy embargo on later records

German civil registration

Commencement dates1792 Baden; Elsass; Rheinland; Pfalz; Lotharingen

1803 Hessen; Hesse-Nassau; Nassau

1808 Westfalen

1809 Hannover

1811 Oldenburg

1850 Anhalt

1874 Brandenberg; Posen; parts of Sachsen; Pommern,

Westpreussen; Ostpreussen; Schlesien; Schleswig-

Holstein; Lübeck (free City State); Prov.

1876 Württemberg; Bayern, Lippe; parts of Sachsen;

Mecklenburg; Thüringen

German civil registration

Most significant source of family history

information in Germany prior to 1876

Up to late 1930’s usually written in

Latin or German Gothic script

Amount of information recorded varies greatly -

later records generally more detailed

Church book duplicates may substitute for

missing or incomplete registers

German church records

Source: EZA

http://www.ezab.de/english/parish_registers.html

Locating German records: online

FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/

1. Name search of IGI and other indexed German records, e.g.

2. Place name search of LDS catalog for microfilmed parish

and civil registration records

3. Extensive help - interpretation of documents, German letter

writing, etc.

Locating German records: online

1. Ancestry.com Free access on site at SLQ

Selected directories, parish records, citizenship

registers and resident rolls, emigration indexes

and lists, digitised historical German gazetteers,

dictionaries & almanacs

2. Cyndi’s List https://www.cyndislist.com/

Includes links to websites on all aspects of

German genealogy

Points to where in Germany archives may be held for:

• BDM records (parish and civil registration)

• emigration records

• Censuses ; military records

• civil registers of residents

Explains the differences between national, state,

local and non-government archives

Lists archives by town providing addresses and

other contact details

Describes the individual strengths of each archive

by listing their major holdings

Locating German records at SLQ: printAncestors in German Archives

Published

2008

Map Guides to German parish registers

For each region the volumes provide

• historical background

• genealogical resources unique to the

region and where they are held

• contact details for regional, state, district

and church archives

• maps showing administrative districts

• a town key to Lutheran and Catholic

parishes, parish maps, and which records

are available on microfilm through

FamilySearch

Map Guide to German parish

registers

• Easy to read overview of German

family history resources

• Provides help with understanding

German script using some common

terms found in parish and civil

records

• Sample letters in German to use

when requesting records

• Useful bibliography of websites and

other resources

• American bias

The Family Tree German Genealogy Guide

German Census Records, 1816-1916

ON ORDER FOR SLQ COLLECTION

NOT YET RECEIVED

Describes census records to be

found in German archives:

• when censuses were taken in

different regions

• types of information collected

• where the records are located

Writing overseas for information

Write in German- templates are available in

both online and print formats

Keep letters simple – be precise about what

you want

You may need to employ a professional

researcher – be clear about what you want

and any financial arrangements involved

Making the German connection: summary1. Establish place of origin from sources accessible

in Australia

2. Use historical maps and gazetteers to locate

place of origin, any change/s of name, and the

relevant ecclesiastical and civil jurisdictions for

the period

3. Use both online and printed sources to locate

relevant archival repositories

4. Write in German and be prepared to employ a

professional German genealogist if necessary

Any questions?

State Library of Queensland

Ask Us

07 3840 7810

www.slq.qld.gov.au/services/ask-us