Frequent Asked Questions
This site was last updated: . Thank you.
Before e-mailing me a message, please read this page, and explore the Germany Genealogy site thouroughly. Why? Many of the questions I get can be answered from the information provided on this site.You may be new to Genealogy, new to the Web, or new to researching German genealogy. Or you may not be able to find what you are looking for easily, or just eager to find an answer. While the only stupid question is the unasked question, I would prefer if you could first explore all of the pages on this site, first! You may find your answer, and you won't have to wait a day or two for me to answer you!
Rule #1.
READ CAREFULLY! You may or may not have noticed that it is very easy to skim a web page and think you have found what you are looking for. It actually takes a bit of effort to remove your hand from the mouse and actually read word-for-word what is written on the screen. As verbose as I am, I am one of the major perptrators of this crime! But, people have taken a lot of time to create a web page that is helpful and have not added more words to the page unnecessarily. Take some time to read what is written. It is there for a reason. I'm teaching myself to do it, too!
Now to those questions...
1. Lookup Request: Please send me information on Josef Schmidt, born 1826 in Berlin.
I often get messages like this. I do not have this ability in any fashion. You must do your own research.
2. Where is Kuhdorf, Germany?
I often receive this question. You can do this yourself quite easliy using the FINDING AIDS located on the Bundesland Homepage.Or you have tried this and still can't find it. The answer to this may be that it is in the former East Germany, and the finding aids just have not been updated, or it is sooo small it does not show up. It may also not exist any longer, or has been incorporated into a larger town or city. Your local LDS Family History Center may have a copy of Meyers Ortslexikon, which is a good place to find those towns.
3. Where do I write for vital records information for Kuhdorf, Germany?
First, go to your local LDS Family History Center ("FHC"). Look in the phone book under Latter Day Saints, and there is usually a listing which says simply "library." Use their card catalog to find the city or visit their website, http://www.familysearch.org. You may have to look under Prussia, Denmark, France, etc. for records whose dates fall prior to the present-day German border. The records you seek may have been filmed already, and it is much cheaper to research this way.
If they have not been filmed, and you want to write to an archive in Germany, go to the Bibliography of Links Page (closed temporary) and find the listing for Internet Resources for German Genealogy. All of the archive addresses, municipal and ecclesiastical, are there. Not sure to which address you should write? Use GeoServ, through on the Bundesland Homepage. It will give you the Kreis in which the town is located and the administrative city of that particular Kreis. Locate that city on the list of addresses, and that's where you should write. Also, German archives are very good about forwarding your request to another office which would have better information, when necessary, and sending you a letter indicating they have done so.
Once again, please explore the whole site! You may just find something you are looking for.
Contact me if you can't figure something out, if you have a suggestion, comment, kudos, etc.
Don't be afraid to contact me. I'm only not going to respond if you send me a list of you ancestors with their dates and ask me where to find information about them.
Also, please read this FAQ, because it is very detailed and will answer a lot of your questions as well: German Genealogy FAQ : http://www.genealogy.net/gene/faqs/sgg.html