CompGen: Germany's Genealogy Mega Site

Germans began immigrating to the United States in 1683, according to documented history. This talk will highlight significant aspects of the first four major waves of migration, through 1910. The areas from which they came and motivations that typified each wave will be detailed. Available immigration and emigration records help tell the immigrant’s story. Laws changed over time and impacted various aspects of the immigration experience.

Military records for Germany are an underutilized resource. Because there was no unified Germany prior to 1871, one must search for records under prior jurisdictions. Many records have not survived. This talk will walk through the steps of finding the records that do exist. It will highlight military records available for the former Kingdom of Hanover, which claims a rich collection.

German archives hold many records valuable for expanding our genealogical research. Church records not available digitally may be waiting in archives. State and local archives may contain emigration, court, tax, and other records to fill in our ancestor’s story. This webinar will explain how to find relevant archives and discover…

Germany does not have large subscription-based websites for accessing newspapers for genealogical research. In spite of that fact, there are thousands of digitized German newspapers available online. Many of them are free. Learn where they are and how to access them.

Meyer’s Gazetteer is great for determining jurisdictions as of 1912. Germany was not a country until 1871. In the centuries leading up to that, land areas were constantly changing hands. One must understand who controlled a given area in order to find all possible records. Topics included in this...

This webinar focuses on getting records created in the areas that became part of the German Empire.

The internet is offering more and more quality information for Germanic researchers. This talk will focus on collections of free digitized German materials and indexes available on the internet. Most websites presented are based in Germany, so tips and tricks for navigating them will be included. This webinar will help...

Despite their reputation for being rooted to their localities, Germans do have a history of migration within their own country, especially after the onset of industrialization in the mid-19th century. In this presentation, we will explore the various patterns of internal migration, and offer guidance on how to navigate these movements to aid in your search for ancestors.

Due to the constantly growing offer of online accessible sources for German genealogical research, an important cornerstone of the actual research is more and more disregarded: the classical research in an archive. A good preparation facilitates the archive visit immensely and makes the search in the historical documents an experience that will never replace a research on the screen. Particularly if you intend to add “meat to the bones” and find more valuable information about your ancestors besides dates and places of birth, marriage and/or death. There are many individual records in German archives and it would be a shame never to look at these wonderful documents. A visit to a German archive can be rather intimidating. Besides language barriers, the archival structures are initially often difficult to understand. But help is near! This presentation will cover professional tips & tricks for research in a German Archive – from preparation over execution to follow-up, if applicable. If you are unfamiliar with a specific archive, it is already difficult as a German to make the most of an archival research visit. Particularly as archives do not offer to conduct complex research projects on your behalf, you have to be prepared to do it yourself.