ROOTS & BRANCHES

Roger P. Minert has added much to the canon of German genealogy research.

His books on language and old German script are the definitive classics of the field, and the continuing series German Immigrants in American Church Records that he directs has unearthed thousands of European village origins.

Minert also brainstormed an innovative tool for the searching of place names by putting together “reverse indexes” of German towns—lists alphabetized from the end of the word, to help genealogists when the first letter or letters of a place name in handwritten records are obscure.

Then, just a few years ago, he turned the German genealogy world on its head by proving wrong what had been an accepted truism—that Germany had few surviving census records (Minert tells of going to archives in Germany that claimed to have no census records and by “sweeping the dark corners” was able to show the archivists that they didn’t know what they had!).

If Minert has any desire to rest on his laurels, his production of books doesn’t show it, since he has added German Residential Records for Genealogists and Austrian Family History Research: Sources and Methodologies in the last couple of years.

German Residential Records for Genealogists was published in 2018 and profiles an expansive document set found on the in German villages and cities in accordance with state laws that sought to register “foreigners” (which included Germans moving from other German states), as well as later registrations of all inhabitants.

These registrations go by German-language names such as Fremdenbuch, Melderegister and Einwohnermeldung; Minert’s book includes a chapter that gives the background of these various records and a glossary is included at the end.

The “meat” of the book goes through each state of the Second German Empire, giving its laws concerning the various types of registration as well as photographs of examples of the records, and where these documents can be found.

Austrian Family History Research: Sources and Methodologies, which Minert wrote with Charlotte Noelle Champenois, was published this year to fill a void—there was no guidebook covering the whole of Austrian genealogy.

Minert and Champenois start with Austria’s storied history (for centuries it was ruled by the one of Europe’s most famous dynasties, Hapsburg family) and go record group by record group, starting with several chapters on church records.

Civil registrations, census and military records are also profiled. Several Austria-oriented websites, GenTeam and Matricula, merit their own chapters.

The book also includes information on the many areas that were historical crownlands but are not politically connected to Austria today.

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German Residential Records for Genealogists and Austrian Family History Research: Sources and Methodologies (both $34.95) are both available from Family Roots Publishing, PO Box 1682, Orting, WA 98360; www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com