Published April 5, 2020
| 1 Comment | Leave A ReplyNo researcher with German-speaking ancestry is able to avoid using church records in their genealogy.
And, of course, why would any want to do so, given how rich with generational information these registers of baptisms, marriages and burials tend to be?
While that’s a mostly rhetorical question—it does have the practical answer that some language skills are needed to tackle these documents, since they not only are written in the German language (requiring at least some vocabulary knowledge) but also usually in an archaic cursive script that is often difficult to decipher.
And who better to answer the practical side of this question than someone who makes her living translating German script documents? Enter Katherine Schober, owner of SK Translations, who has recently written The Magic of German Church Records: Finding the Key to Your Ancestor’s Past (self-published, 221 pages, $39).
I’ll get my “conflict of interest” statement out of the way right now: I’ve known Schober for three years and she generously credits me in her acknowledgments as a “mentor and friend.” She also cites my book Trace Your German Roots Online a number of times.
However, neither of those things colors my opinion that The Magic of German Church Records is worth the shelf space in the personal library of any family historian with German-speaking ancestry.
That’s because the book offers a lot of good information, loads of vocabulary and samples of records, in addition to being brightly written.
Schober sensibly divides the book into two sections, the first of which gives a lot of background about accessing church records and describing some of idiosyncrasies such as spelling variations, copious amounts of abbreviations, use of church feast days instead of dates and a list of helpful websites.
The second section gets into the meat and potatoes of the records—Schober methodically dissects the information found in baptismal, marriage and burial records that can be found in both columnar and paragraph formats. She also goes through the data found in the “family registers” that for many parishes bring together all the names and dates about a family together in one listing.
The book also has a number of appendixes, including additional samples of records, and vocabulary that break out special lists of German language months, numbers and occupations.
Whether the reader is a beginner just getting his or her feet wet into these records or an experienced hand with them, you’ll find information you didn’t know previously—either in terms of the records themselves, access points for them or the latest, greatest resources for translating German.
The Magic of German Church Records: Finding the Key to Your Ancestor’s Past is available on Schober’s website, https://sktranslations.com/shop
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The Best of "Roots & Branches", Fifth Edition published July 2017, edited by Terri J. Bridgwater.
It contains a selection of columns from Beidler’s award-winning newspaper column (currently published in the Altoona Mirror), which is the only syndicated newspaper column on genealogy in Pennsylvania.
The book can be ordered online, or purchased directly from Jim when he speaks at a conference.
Donna
5 years ago
I am so glad you recommended this wonderful book, James. It is so well written, with examples of printed forms of birth, marriage, and death records. It includes those church records written in script, it includes examples of abbreviations used in church records, and occupations. It is a wonderful resource for anyone trying to transcribe church records.