Guild Records Among Many Resources For Researching German Ancestry
The Winter 1994 issue of The German Genealogical Digest carries several articles of interest to genealogists.
One chronicles the Gerber family from Saxony and Switzerland to Pennsylvania and is a good case study for any genealogist.
Another explains guild records.
A guild was an association of men with similar interests or pursuits usually associated with medieval times. German guilds were active from the 1200s to the 19th century. Guild records can bridge the gaps in parish registers or cover time periods prior to parish registers.
They contain names of skilled laborers, craftsmen and apprentices and may also include some vital records-type information.
This article explains where German guild records can be accessed.
A small percentage of guild records has been microfilmed, and these are available through the Family History Centers.
Another article, “North German Marriage Records” by Laraine Ferguson, explains that “an ambitious project to identify sources and provide publications of the population history of Northern Germany has become a valuable resource for German family researchers. A significant organizational achievement has been accomplished by Franz Schubert of Gottingen, Germany, in coordinating the indexing and publishing marriage records from the beginning of parish registers in North Germany to the year 1750, and in some cases, to the year 1876.”
Schubert and his associates indexed and published more than 300,000 marriage entries, and more are forthcoming.
These lists provide the genealogist with a book series that will save untold hours of research time. Many indexed parishes are available only in German archives, and parishes records available on microfilm (through the Family History Library) are often difficult to read because of the language and script.
These records are now neatly typed and indexed. Names of the bride and groom, marriage date, and often names of their parents, are provided.
Several years of back issues of the German Genealogical Digest are available in the Genealogy Section of the downtown Spokane Public Library.
To subscribe, send $24 (for one year) to GGD, N245 Vine, No. 106, Salt Lake City, UT 84103. Individual issues can be ordered for $8. I highly recommend this publication to anyone researching German ancestry.
While we’re on the subject of German research, my friend Charlotte Jacob-Hanson, who lives in Bad Soden, Germany, writes a newsletter column explaining old German language idioms.Most idioms have a basis in fact, but often that knowledge is forgotten in the everyday usage of the term.
One idiom you might encounter in a biographical sketch about your German ancestor would be “jemandem einen Korb geben,” translated “to give someone a basket.” This means to reject someone, to turn someone down, and goes back to the 12th and 13th centuries, the age of courtly romance.
It seems a maiden could choose how she wished to receive a suitor.
If he was a favored candidate for her hand, he would be received through the front door.
If not, a basket, usually with a weak bottom, was let down over the wall to him. On being hoisted up to the maiden’s window, he would likely fall through the basket.
In this way the basket evolved into a symbol of rejection.”
The Family History Library has a brand new research outline for Germany. This 52-page booklet covers everything you need to know about beginning and continuing your research in Germany, and especially using the microfilmed records available through the library. This booklet costs about $2 and may be purchased at Ancestors Plus (formerly LaDecor) at Shadle Center and at the Pines Family History Center, 40th and Highway 27.
The summer 1994 issue of News of the Family History Library tells of a new German acquisition that could prove to be a wonderful resource. Half a million German pedigrees, mostly dating from 1650 to 1850, are available on microfilm at the Family History Library and through the Family History Centers.
Many of these pedigrees are hundreds of pages long. Titled the German Pedigree Card Index, this database is more than 600 pedigree films (listed under the FHLC computer number 677728). The explanations will be written in German, but the flier says the catalog contains a brief explanation in English.
The flier also tells that the library has acquired 135 new microfilms about Germans in Russia. The German Protestant Church of Russia was organized into several consistories and headquartered in St. Petersburg.
The new microfilms contain 274 volumes of the consistories’ church record transcripts stored at the Russian State Historical Archives. These records are from German settlements near St. Petersburg, the Black Sea, Bessarabia and the Crimea from 1833 to 1885.
How to write autobiography
If you have been meaning to write a bit about the story of your life but haven’t decided how to begin, or if you have been bugging your dad or mother to do same, then my new handout might help you. Suggestions for Writing Your Personal History is available by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to me in care of this newspaper.