Ancestry, Archion, Matricula, German Roots, FamilySearch, and the US National Archives. These websites offer a wide range of resources, including guides and tutorials, records and documents, specialized genealogical tools, and access to archives and local resources.
Finding ancestors in Germany takes effort and an understanding of the landscape you’re about to explore. Top genealogy websites for this endeavor should educate you not only about history and heritage but also provide tips and tricks to maneuver. Most importantly, you need websites with records and assistance to find the much-needed information and discovery.
This guide covers the top Genealogy websites known to offer all this and streamline your German family history research.
Guides and Tutorials
Guides and tutorials are the first things you should look for before embarking on German genealogy research. Here, you find tips and dos and don’ts as you start to avoid the pitfalls. German genealogy research is unique, and you need a step-by-step guide reflecting that.
The German Roots site offers practical instructions on how to start your German ancestry search from scratch and make notable progress within no time. The guidelines will help you avoid pitfalls, provide crucial workarounds for common obstacles, and help you break brick walls.
The Genealogy blog site also has a myriad of guides, from general German research to specific tasks like understanding name variations and finding residential records and newspapers. This site also offers links to important databases and genealogical sites like Ancestry, and Family Search.
Records and Documents
Once you have a plan for your research, the next thing you need to look for is evidence in the form of records and documentation. You want proof of your ancestors’ and relatives’ full names, residence, ages, occupations, religion, etc. Civil and church records in Germany have proven vital in providing these crucial details and should be your priority in the early stages of your research.
Start with any information you can find at home or from relatives, and preserve crucial documents, cards, and photos you see. Luckily, most German civil and church records are now digitized, and with a few clicks away, you could unearth more transcriptions and documents for your heritage search.
The most common records you will need for your German genealogy research include civil records, church records, immigration records, military records, and land records.
The best German genealogy websites for ancestry records and documents are Ancestry, Archion, and Matricula. Ancestry has dedicated collections for German research. Select “German” under the “All Collections” tab to access everything German from communities, records, and additional tips. It lets you search civil and church records by name, record type, or location across the vast database.
Arhion.de focuses solely on German church records, mainly Protestant records from over 25 different archives. It lets you download most of them and collaborate with the community through its lively forum. These church records cover vital events, family connections, and social contexts unavailable in vital records. You can search your church records by year, parish, or name from the over 150,000 records available.
Like Archion.de, Matricula Online offers access to church records, but it goes a step further to cover all central European countries. You will find records dating back to the 1500s, indexed from about 200 scientific and academic institutions across over 30 European countries, the US, and Canada.
If you’re looking for emigration and immigration records for your German ancestry research, the top websites for you are Deutsche Auswanderer-Datenbank (German Emigrants Database), German Roots, and the US National Archives.
The Grundbucharchive (Land Registry Archives) is the best German website for land ownership records. German military records are kept in the Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives). Similarly, online sites like Ancestry and Fold3 have integrated most of these military records and made them searchable by name or conflict.
Specialized Genealogical Tools.
Besides genealogical websites and archives, you need tools like gazetteers, dictionaries, atlases, and maps to interpret the vast information you gather in German historical research. The Meyers Gazetteer has been a must-have tool for German genealogists as it provides maps, historical contexts, and name variations, simplifying place and people’s name searches. With the territorial and boundary shifts witnessed in Germany throughout history, as well as the name variations of people due to immigration, Gazetteers become reliable resources for researchers.
Another crucial tool is the Atlas of Everyday German Language (Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache (AdA)), which, in addition to ancient German maps, offers contemporary German dialect and regional language variations. It also has several audio recordings to help German researchers listen to dialect speakers and grasp the right pronunciation and usage of people and place names.
Archives and Local Resources
Lastly, your focus on regional archives and genealogical societies, particularly in regions where your ancestors are likely to have resided or originated, can narrow down the research and help you better understand the local nuances. State archives like the Bavarian State Archive provide regional records, including the yet-to-be digitized ones. Each of the 16 German states has a regional archive, which should be your priority if you know the region from which your ancestors lived.
Most of these regions also have Family History Centers like the ones often run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They not only provide records but have crucial genealogical information that may not be digitized like wills and microfilms. Others are regional genealogical societies, like the Westphalian Society and Family Research that provide local expertise and assistance when needed.
Find Your Ancestors in Germany
Genealogy research employs triangulation, hence the need for diverse websites and resources to trace your heritage accurately. This guide highlights the top websites for all the necessary guides, records, tools, and information to find your ancestor in Germany. Study a few tutorials and guides from the German Roots and Genealogy Blog and follow through with records, tools, and precision to trace your ancestors in Germany.