German civil registration | Genealogy Gems

Year-End Round Up of New Genealogy Records Online

by Lacey Cooke | Dec 28, 2018 | 01 What's New, Records & databases | 11 comments

It’s the end of another year, and as 2018 comes to a close we’ve rounded up the last of the new online records collections for you. Explore a unique collection of Catholic Church records in Peru, dating back to the 17th century. Next you can view Jewish registers online at Ancestry.com, browse unique historical collections for the U.S., and check out German civil registrations new and updated at FamilySearch.

Peru Catholic Church Records

New at FamilySearch is a growing indexed collection of records for Peru, Diocese of Huaraz, Catholic Church Records, 1641-2016. These records include baptisms, confirmations, marriages, pre-marriage investigations, deaths, and indexes. More indexed records will be added as they become available, but right now the collection boasts over 150,000 records.

About Catholic Church records: “Catholic Church parish registers were created by priests authorized to record the church sacraments of baptism, marriage, death, burial, and other ordinances in their parish jurisdiction. Catholic Church parish registers are the primary source for finding genealogical information of birth, death, and marriage in Peru prior to 1852, when the civil registration was implemented.”

Jewish Register Books

A new collection of Jewish register books from Poland is online now at Ancestry.com:
Poland, Modliborzyce Ghetto Register Books, 1939-1944 (USHMM)
A variety of information can be found in these records, including your ancestor’s name, age, birth date and place, occupations, residences, parents’ names, and more.

From the collection description: “This database contains the names of the Jewish population in the Modliborzyce Ghetto. The registers were compiled by the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in Modliborzyce between 1941 and 1942. The original documents are held by the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland. This collection was indexed by World Memory Project contributors from the digitized holdings of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.”

New U.S. Records & Databases

New from the University of Arkansas: a fascinating digital collection of the American Old West in the form of diaries. “Whiskey smuggling, murder, scandal and a ‘hanging judge’ — the latest digital exhibit from University Libraries has all this and more. The Deputy Marshal Addison Beck and Judge Isaac Parker’s Court collection is now available worldwide, free of charge. Addison Beck was a deputy marshal for the United States from 1875 to 1883 who patrolled for the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in Fort Smith. Addison Beck’s two surviving diaries chronicle 1880 to early 1881 and from April through August 1881.”

The Washington State Libray is wrapping up the Washington Rural Heritage Collection, which includes nearly 2,000 new items spanning 5 collections. This expansive collaboration provides historic photographs, ephemera and objects, documents, artifacts, oral histories, and more throughout Washington State.

Over at FamilySearch is a new collection for North Carolina, Historical Records Survey, Cemetery Inscription Card Index. This index contains images of Surname index cards listing county, name of cemetery, town, person, date of birth, death date, age, spouse or parents, location of grave, military information.

German Civil Registrations

Finally, check out these new online records for Germany, Saxony-Anhalt, Halberstadt, Civil Registration, 1874-1982, available for free at FamilySearch. In this collection you’ll find an index of the birth, marriage and death records from Halberstadt Kreisarchiv. Included in these records are these localities Aspenstedt, Emersleben, Halberstadt, Klein Quenstedt (Kr. Halberstadt), Langenstein, Mahndorf, Sargstedt, Ströbeck, and Wehrstedt. Original records held at Halberstadt Kreisarchiv, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

In addition, this collection was updated with more records: Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, Kreis Steinburg, Civil Registration, 1874-1983. This collection consists of civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths for the district of Steinburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Original records are located in the Gemeinsames Archiv des Kreises Steinburg und der Stadt Itzehoe (Joint Archive of the District of Steinburg and the City of Itzehoe).

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Lacey Cooke

Lacey has been working with Genealogy Gems since the company’s inception in 2007. Now, as the full-time manager of Genealogy Gems, she creates the free weekly newsletter, writes blogs, coordinates live events, and collaborates on new product development. No stranger to working with dead people, Lacey holds a degree in Forensic Anthropology, and is passionate about criminal justice and investigative techniques. She is the proud dog mom of Renly the corgi.

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German Civil Registration Records and More Now Online

by Sunny | Aug 10, 2018 | 01 What's New, Records & databases | 2 comments

Now online! German civil registration records for Bad Doberman, Berchtesgaden and Minden, as well as WWII UK prisoners of war records, updates to the 1939 Register, parish records for Cheshire, Cumberland and Derbyshire; British newspapers and Queensland, Australia inquests.

Featured: German civil registration records

Genealogy Giant Ancestry.com has published several new collections of German civil registration records. According to the site, “Beginning on January 1, 1876, birth, marriage and death records in the former German Empire were created by local registry offices. The collected records are arranged chronologically and usually bound together in the form of yearbooks. These are collectively referred to as ‘civil registers.’ Occasionally, alphabetical directories of names were also created. While churches continued to keep traditional records, the State also mandated that the personal or marital status of the entire population be recorded.” Information in each varies.

Explore these German civil registration records by first by going to Ancestry.com here and then in the menu, select Search > Card Catalog > and search for the name of the collection we list below:

For Bad Doberman:

Bad Doberan, Germany, Military Registers, 1868-1914
Bad Doberan, Germany, Residence Registers, 1884-1918

For Berchtesgaden:

Berchtesgaden, Germany, Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1876-1950

For Minden:

Minden, Germany, Citizen Lists and Residence Registers, 1845-1902
Minden, Germany, Births, 1874-1905
Minden, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1935
Minden, Germany, Deaths, 1874-1966 and
Minden, Germany, Military Records, 1783-1856.

UK, Allied Prisoners of War, 1939-1945. “This collection contains information about the soldiers captured, where they were held and often, what happened to them,” states the collection description. “Whilst details vary between sets of records, you may find the following information (where available): name, camp name, nationality, place and date of birth, place and date of death, father’s name, mother’s name, gender, date and place of capture, service (e.g. Army, Air, Navy, Civilian), service rank [and] service number.”

New Genealogy Records at Findmypast

1939 Register Update. For England and Wales: “Over 37,000 ‘closed records’ have been opened up and are now available to search. Search today and find out what your ancestors were doing on the eve of WWII. Discover exactly what they did for a living, maps of where they lived, and even who their neighbors were.”

Cheshire Registers & Records. Explore registers and records from the English county of Cheshire. This collection currently comprises five titles including parish registers, local histories, and funeral certificates.

Cumberland Registers & Records. This collection currently comprises one title: Monumental Inscriptions in the Graveyards of Brigham & Bridekirk, 1666-1876. This title was published in 1878. The preface notes that ‘the whole of these inscriptions were copied with great care, and the same care has been extended to the printing of them.”

Derbyshire Registers & Records. This collection currently comprises one title: The Brave Men of Eyam, 1665-1666. The preface of this title states that the statistics regarding deaths, dates, and some leading incidents are historical, although ‘the object of the book is to tell, in a popular form, the tale of a “mighty woe.”

British newspaper additions! Now at Findmypast is the Oxfordshire Weekly News, covering the years 1869-1895 and 1898-1926. You’ll also find the following added coverage for these papers: Irish Independent (1995-1997, 2000), Belfast Telegraph (1915-1916, 1918-1919) and Liverpool Echo (1987-1988).

Australia, Queensland, Inquests 1859-1897. Discover your ancestor in this index compiled from the inquest files created by the Justice Department for the period 1859 to 1897. Each result will provide you with a transcript including a combination of your ancestor’s name, alias, and inquest year, any additional notes, their file number, reference and item ID.

German family history research help for you

The Genealogy Gems website is packed with German family history research tips and tricks, from this beginner post (where we tackle the question of what “German” even means!) to this helpful explanation of German census records. Click here to explore all our German-related articles. Or: click on the free video right here to learn about finding your German ancestor’s village of origin!

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.