ROOTS & BRANCHES

Roger P. Minert is one of those heavyweights of the German genealogy field who practically needs no introduction.

But for the benefit of those who haven’t encountered him or his work: Minert is a retired Brigham Young University family history professor who has a background in German language study and has published a variety of reference books on various topics relating to German genealogy—including ones on phonetics and script as well as a paradigm-shifting look at German census records (thought by many to simply not exist!).

In his encompassing study of various record groups, Minert has found that church records yield the most references to specific places of origin.

This has led to his masterwork, however, which has continued into his retirement from teacher, is the series German Immigrants in American Church Records (GIACR for short), which stands at more than 40 volumes (covering states from Ohio to Texas and most states in between).

With the help of a generation of BYU students, Minert has combed through original registers of ethnic German churches seeking specific information on village origins of immigrants in everything from marriage records to membership lists.

Minert recently announced that after completing four volumes on Wisconsin this year, Pennsylvania church records will be GIACR’s next target for extraction by the beginning of next year.

 “We already have a list of German churches in Pennsylvania, but will now do all that we can to expand that list so that tens of thousands of immigrants from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland can be included in what will likely be at least four volumes,” according to Minert’s announcement. “Our focus remains on churches where more than simply ‘Germany’ is given for the origins of the immigrants; GIACR books are popular because they identify the hometowns of immigrants.”

In addition to Minert’s list, he’s hoping others will provide him with details about churches whose records might contain origins, including the following:

• the name of the church at its founding and the current name (if different and extant),
• the precise location of the original church,
• the founding date of the church,
• the location of the original church records if no longer in the church office,
• and the means of the GIACR team to access the records, particularly through digital means.

Readers with specifics on the church records being sought can email Minert at rogerpminert@gmail.com.

Since I’ve had in my long-range publication plans a guide to Pennsylvania German church records, I already had some thoughts about the range of records that Minert and his team should be sure to examine … which may in some cases be different than what they’ve seen in the later-settled Midwestern states. “Roots & Branches” will address those thoughts next week!

Minert also solicits tax-deductible donations for wages for student team members at his website, www.rogerpminert.com