Noting that additional data had been added to the the Germany Vital Records databases at FamilySearch.org in the last two days, I spent a few minutes checking them out, thinking that there wasn’t much possibility that I’d find MY ancestors there.
Three separate databases are available. They are:
- Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898
- Germany Deaths and Burials, 1582-1958
- Germany Marriages, 1558-1929
As of today, the Births and Baptisms database contains 32,877,879 entries. The Deaths and Burials database contains 3,538,826 entries, while the Marriage database has 7,212,791 entries.
According to the website, due to privacy laws, recent records may not be displayed. The year range represents most of the records. A few records may be earlier or later. The records don’t cover all of Germany, and time periods vary. The indexes are derived from digital copies of originals housed in various repositories throughout Germany.
I started out by typing the name Karl Meitzler in the search engine for Germany Births and Baptisms. Much to my surprise, I found a number of them, including entries for my Great Grandfather who immigrated to America in 1849. Amazing…
Clicking on the first entry for Karl Meitzler, I got the following data on my great grandfather, Karl Meitzler:
Clicking on the 5th entry, I found a similar document which included the church in which he was baptized.
Oh, Isn’t genealogy fun!!!
Now go look for your German ancestors in the following three databases at FamilySearch.org:
