ROOTS & BRANCHES

When it comes finding precise background information about German-speaking genealogy in any of Earth’s far-flung places, there’s one book I know to pull from my shelves to help me.

As I remarked in the tail end of last week’s “Roots & Branches” column, this installment of what constitutes a “core collection” of Pennsylvania German genealogy resources would focus on the largest single volume on my bookshelf.

This would be Germanic Genealogy: A Guide to Worldwide Sources and Migrations Patterns, the third and current edition (dated 2007) of which runs 658 pages. The book is credited to the editorial team of Edward R. Brandt, Mary Sutter Bellingham, Kent Cutkomp, Kermit Frye, Patricia Adams Lowe, and Paul Sternberg.

Published (appropriately enough) by the Germanic Genealogy Society headquartered in Minnesota, this tome literally works its way around the world to profile the history and resources available in the many corners of the globe to which German-speaking people have immigrated.

The tome begins with several chapters oriented to beginner American genealogists as well as those who have not found their immigrant ancestors’ specific Germanic local origin. This is especially important since so many records around the world, even in the Internet age, are only accessible if knowledge of that foreign village of origin is known.

Germanic Genealogy gives a checklist of the most likely U.S. records to show places of origin and concentrates on passenger lists (both departure and arrival) as well variations on personal and place names that may have an impact on research.

The book also has chapters the history, the all-important church records, German Jews, and a profile of German migrations—continent by continent.

But the bulk of the volume is devoted to country by country (and state by state within the Second German Empire) writeups of the specific history, detailed bibliography, best records, top websites, and most-helpful repositories for each of these geographic units.

Whether its Australia (or Canada or South Africa or Bulgaria or right next door to Germany in Poland), Germanic Genealogy’s chapters give the readers key insights into what’s needed research German-speaking ancestors who lived or landed in these areas.

Germanic Genealogy concludes with a chapter on corresponding with European sources and a primer on reading the German-language records, as well as a bibliography, a few maps, and timeline of German history.

The book Germanic Genealogy is available from Germanic Genealogy Society as well as other Internet booksellers (I saw one listing online calling this a “handbook,” which if taken literally requires both hands for sure!).