In order to use the church records, you must know the town the ancestor came from, at least a name and an exact date of the event. With my father’s name, birth date and town, I found the correct entry for his baptism. Baptisms list the parents, mother’s maiden name, father’s occupation and sponsors. From there I was able to trace my surname back to my 7^th great-grandfather.

The next thing to learn is the old German script. Learning the script is just a matter of training your eyes to recognize names and words. There are several books available, as well as sites on the Internet, with examples of the alphabet. I have used the alphabet at <http://www.mun.ca/rels/morav/pics/tutor/mscript2. html> in my research, and it has served me very well. If you want examples of what individual words look like, one of the most popular books is If I Can You Can Decipher Germanic Records. This book is available at <http://pages.prodigy.net/tjbentz/GERMANIC.HTM>. The author is deceased, but her family is still selling her book. The book shows many examples of letters and written words so you can recognize them.

Some of the letters look very similar. One needs to just look at the sets of letters in the illustration to see the differences. For example, a capital B looks like the capital L but the B has the same bottom part as a small b in our writing. The capital K and R look similar but the K wears a hat, the top stroke goes toward the right. The small u and small n are the same except the small u has a u-shaped mark over it. This is not to be confused with the German umlaut, the two dots over the letters a, o, and u, that changes the pronunciation of the noun. The old script has three different letters for an s: the capital s, the middle s (an s in the middle of a word such as Meisner), and an end s (an s used at the end of a word such as Johannes). Sometimes you will see what appears to be a capital B in the middle of a word. That symbol stands for a double ss, for example, Messer for knife can be Meßer.

Regarding spelling and pronunciation, the German language is very efficient. There are no silent letters in a German word. Words and names are spelled the way they are pronounced. The letters ie or ei are always pronounced like the second letter. For example, the name Schneider has an i sound as in Schnyder, and the name Riegg has an e sound as in Reegg. S followed by another consonant is always pronounced sh as in Stein (Schtein).

Here are a few helpful points to know:

You will probably need a reference book for the old German symbols, abbreviations, words, occupations, and illnesses. Ernest Thode’s book, German-English Genealogical Dictionary is available in the Friends’ bookstore at NARA- Pittsfield. I find this book more helpful than a regular German dictionary.

Common symbols, abbreviations and words are listed below.

Ok, now that you have all that straight in your head, just why would you want to learn all this? Well, you will be able to learn dates and places of birth, marriage, death, burial; cause of death; dates of confirmations and communions; read notes about emigrations/immigrations, learn maiden names for your grandmothers, names of sponsors, hometowns of ancestors, and occupations which sometimes is the only way you can keep straight family members with the same names. Also you sometimes get real goodies, for example, when the pastor wrote additional information that helps to describe the person. I learned that a great uncle had been in the Spanish-American war from his Familienbuch. For the death note the pastor wrote, “died in the vicinity of Cuba while on the warship the USS New York, June 26, 1898.” From that note I knew he had come to America, when he died, and which ship he was on. I contacted NARA for that day’s ship’s log and was able to get his enlistment date, age, stature, and his cause of death (fell overboard during a coaling operation, drowned, his body never found, age at death, 19 1/2).

Starting in 1808, pastors were required to keep Family Books (Familienbücher). These are wonderful records; they are similar to the family group sheets we use. When you order a microfilm from the LDS for a town, look to see if there are Familienbücher for that town. If you are looking for a person who was born, died, or married after 1808, order the Familienbücher film first. Each Family Book page is numbered and may list referral numbers to other Family Books.

Each Family Book page has four main sections.

Following the numbers of Family Books can yield a great deal of information rather quickly.

Confirmation Register.  Most confirmations in the German evangelical churches occurred when the child was 14. Some bigger churches confirmed their teenagers twice a year, once in spring and once in the fall. Generally the child and father’s names are listed. You can use this register to help you determine a birth date if birth records are missing.

Now that you have become familiar with the above, have a look at a German church film. The first look is the hardest. It gets easier each time. Before long, you will be finding relatives and ancestors galore. Have fun and happy hunting.