Marriage records are a major source of genealogical information since they mark the merging of two families and provide what may be the only source of a married woman’s maiden surname. Searching for maiden names in marriage records is one of the first priorities of all genealogy research. One maiden name brings a whole new set of ancestors and their stories into play.Marriage has always been a very public covenant, since two people were vowing to care for each other and their children, … [Read more...]
Unlocking the Genealogical Treasure of the Parish Chest
Family historians with ancestry in England will almost certainly be familiar with Church of England parish registers. These registries of baptisms, marriages and burials provide the trunk on which most pre-1837 English family trees are built. Even after the 1837 implementation of civil registration, parish registers continued to be a significant source of useful genealogical information. What is less well-known, however, is that the Anglican parish created more than just baptism, marriage and … [Read more...]
A Genealogist’s Guide to Using Catholic Records in Genealogy Research
Where extant, church records can be an enormous boon to genealogical research. Catholic records in particular are some of the best in the world for three reasons: first, because of the level of family detail they tend to include; second, because of their far reach into the past—sometimes as distant as the late 1500s; and third, for their generally high level of accessibility to researchers today. We at Legacy Tree Genealogists have traced Catholic ancestors for our clients in places like Latin … [Read more...]
Legacy Tree Onsite: Finding Lutheran Ancestors at the Church Registry Office in Hanover
Legacy Tree Genealogists works with researchers all over the world to access records for our clients. We asked Sylvia, onsite in Germany, to share her experiences using the Kirchenbuchamt Hannover (Church Registry Office of Hanover) to find ancestors in the 19th century.Many descendants of German immigrants will be all too familiar with the problem: you’re trying to find that hometown in Europe, but passenger lists or documents give only "Hanover" or "Hannover" as the birthplace. (The … [Read more...]
German Evangelical Church Records Online: Archion.de
Church records, which can include baptisms, marriages, burials, confirmations, and in some areas family books, are some of the most commonly used resources for German genealogical research.For those with German ancestors of the Protestant Evangelical faith, accessing church records from many areas of Germany has gotten easier over the last several years. In earlier times one had to travel to Germany to see the church records in person. Later, some were microfilmed and were made available … [Read more...]
German Immigrants in American Church Records
Do you have German ancestors who lived in the Midwest? Were they Protestants? If you answered yes to those questions, then you need to know about the German Immigrants in American Church Records (GIACR) series.Compiled by Dr. Roger P. Minert of Brigham Young University, the first volume of the series was published in 2005 and has since expanded to include 18 volumes, the most recent of which was published in July 2015. It covers a total of nine states—Indiana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, … [Read more...]
Faith of our Fathers: Using Religious Records in Genealogical Research
Historically, religion often played an influential part in our ancestors’ lives. Knowing which religion or denomination your ancestor belonged to is more than just an interesting piece of trivia, though – it can often be a crucial clue leading to more records. As a previous blog post discussed, church records are often not readily available online. Many can be found on microfilm, but most are still held privately by the church which created them, or perhaps a local archive. For this reason, they … [Read more...]
