Got relatives in the Bavarian area of Ansbach, Mittelfranken? If so, you’re soon to have access to many original records previously difficult to get at.

PROVO, UT, May 13, 2008 — FamilySearch recently announced an inaugural project in concert with FamilyLink.com, Inc., to digitize and index a valuable German genealogy collection containing over 3.5 million names from the period of 1650-1875.

The Brenner Collection contains 3.5 million names on more than 750 rolls of microfilm, representing between 900,000 and 1.5 million images. A final count will be determined once all of the records have been indexed. The complete Brenner Collection database is scheduled to be online at WorldVitalRecords.com by the end of this year, although segments of the database will be launched in the interim.

“The genealogy market for German records is hungry for online data. FamilyLink.com was selected for this project because of the company’s focus on international vital record sets,” said Paul Nauta, Manager of Public Affairs, FamilySearch.

The FamilySearch Records Access Program (RAP), announced in 2007, works with record custodians and companies to preserve and publish the world’s genealogical records faster, more effectively, and efficiently. Under the RAP agreement for the Brenner Collection, FamilySearch will digitize the records, and FamilyLink.com will create the indexes. When completed, the index will be available for free at FamilySearch.org and WorldVitalRecords.com. Access to the images will be free to FamilySearch members and WorldVitalRecords.com subscribers.

“This is our first project with FamilySearch, and we are excited to collaborate with them,” said Jonathan Burton, COO, FamilyLink.com, Inc. “This database will be an invaluable part of our growing German collection. Certainly it will be priceless to the descendants worldwide of the families listed in these records.”

The Brenner Collection was discovered in a Bavarian barn and includes data from approximately 97 parishes primarily within the vicinity of Ansbach, and also other places in Mittelfranken, Bavaria.

“I love that that these German records have found a home on our site,” said Paul Allen, CEO, FamilyLink.com, Inc. “This collection will be a highlight of the German records coming soon on our site, and will provide important links to information for those with German ancestry.”

Using the extracts found in the Brenner Collection is comparable to searching the original parish registers, with the exception that these records have been alphabetized and arranged in families by FamilySearch over a ten-year period.

“The Brenner Collection is a fabulous collection because you receive information on such a large section of the population. No other microfilm collection exists of this material,” said Warren Bittner, German collection management specialist for FamilySearch. “You would have to go from village to village to receive the same information that you can now find in one place.”

We are attending the National Genealogical Society Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, flying out of Salt Lake City about 7 am on Tuesday, May 13, 2008. Following the Conference, Patty and I will stay in Missouri for an extra week - doing research on my Claussen and Newton families as well as Patty’s Eden, Stratton and Daffern lines.

We will return on Monday, the 26th of May, with all orders that came in while we were away being shipped on the 27th and 28th of May. We’re sorry for the delay of a few days, but we just don’t have anyone to ship for us while we’re away.

Any orders placed at the www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com website will be handled exactly the same way.

Thanks for your understanding. If you’re at the conference, please stop by the Everton booth and say “hello.”

Ancestry has now posted a total of 540 German city directories containing about 27,000,000 names. This data is available to all those with a membership to Ancestry.de or a World Deluxe Ancestry.com membership. The majority of the directories are from the late 1800s and early to mid-1900s. Genealogists can browse all of the German directories or search the Ancestry Card Catalog by keyword to locate directories.

In searching for “Meitzler” in Germany, I just typed the name, “Meitzler” in the Search Databases - Last Name box on the left hand side of the German Directories & Member Lists screen. Clicking on the “Search” button brought up Meitzler in a number of categories. Scrolling down the screen, I came to Directories and Member Lists. Clicking on “View all 25 results,” at the end of that category gave me a list of 10 German Directories with 25 Meitzler listings. Good stuff!!!

Map Guide to German Parish Registers Volumes 18 & 19 are now available. The soft-cover volumes were bound and delivered during the past week. The hard-cover volume for Bavaria Schwaben (Vol. 18) is now also shipping and the hard cover Bavaria Niederbayern I (Vol. 19) will ship the next week.

The Schwaben volume covers 3,643 places in the Schwaben area of Germany, while the Niederbayern I volume covers 4,779 places. Note that there will be two Niederbayern volumes, Volume 20 not yet in print.

To purchase the Schwaben volume or to browse the alphabetical list of towns included therein click here.

To purchase the Niederbayern I volume, or to browse the alphabetical listing of towns included therein, click here.

Neither of these volumes is yet listed at GermanMapGuide.com, but that should take place in the next week or two.

The all-day, April 26 seminar of the Sacramento German Genealogy Society will be held at La Sierra Community Center in Carmichael. The event is part of a two-day celebration of the Society’s 25th anniversary. On the evening of April 25, a “German Buffet Gala” will be held, with admittance free of charge to all those who pre-register for the April 26 seminar. This “Gala,” to be held at the Sacramento Turn Verein, will feature a German buffet with a selection from traditional German cuisine, a German band, German folk dancers, and German songs. Seminar speakers at the April 26 seminar will be the well known German research experts Dr. Roger P. Minert, A.G., and Marion Wolfert, A.G. For further information: www.SacGerGenSoc.org.

Thanks to Shirley Riemer for this item.

My friend Pat Richley, aka DearMyrtle, reviewed the Map Guide to German Parish Registers series on her blog today. Following is the first couple paragraphs.

Locating German Church Records: Hansen’s Map Guides

DearREADERS,
OK, so you’ve finally located the small town where you Germanic ancestors once lived before immigrating to the United States. How do you find the parish registers?

It is easy enough to use the FHLC Family History Library Catalog to see if any records from the town are on microfilm and available through your local LDS FHC, but they usually filed NOT by town, but by parish, province or duchy. How will you locate all of the jurisdictions associated with your ancestors’ town?

THE PROBLEM:
For too long, we have relied on cryptic “MyersOrts”, and other such German-language gazetteers, which by definition do NOT include maps, but a description of each locality in paragraph format. Aside from the German font, one must decipher cryptic abbreviations and codes…

Read the full blog at DearMyrtle’s website.

The following is in support of upcoming Sacramento German Genealogy Society (SGGS) Programs:

Learn strategies for locating your German ancestors. Listen to expert speakers, talk to fellow genealogists, and buy books to help your research efforts. We are non-profit and the meetings are free!

TIME AND LOCATION: Monthly meetings are held at 1pm in St. Mark’s Methodist Church Fellowship Hall on Lusk Dr. & St. Marks Way. St Mark’s is located directly behind Country Club Plaza near Watt and El Camino in Sacramento.

Upcoming SGGS Programs in 2008

Date: TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2008
Presenter: Baerbel Johnson, A.G.
Topic: “Where are they really?” Strategies and hints for locating those elusive German ancestors”
An International Reference Consultant at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Baerbel John’s head is packed full of ideas for solving ancestral problems. With more than twenty years’ experience in European family history, with emphasis on Germany, she offers tools, including many websites, for finding 18th and 19th century ancestors.

Date: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2008
Presenter: Kay Cayler
Topic: What you know, don’t know, wish you had known, or never even considered when doing genealogical research”
With her long-time interest in genealogy, Kay Cayler, active in our SGGS Study Group and in the Ostfriesen Genealogy Society, has collected through the years some of the off-the –wall observations that can benefit us in our family history pursuits. She is a past president of the Solano County Genealogy Society.

We shipped the soft cover volumes of Map Guide to German Parish Registers, Volume 17, Bavaria IV Oberpfalz today. If all goes as planned at the bindery, we should be shipping the hard cover editions on Wednesday, November 28. The soft cover volume may be purchased online at the Family Roots Publishing Company website.

Note that as of today, four Bavarian German Map Guides are in print. They are:

Bavaria I - Unterfranken (Vol. 14)
Bavaria II - Oberfranken (Vol 15)
Bavaria III - Mittelfranken (Vol. 16) and
Bavaria IV - Oberpfalz (Vol. 17).

Update: We are home. We had a wonderful time - and now life is coming back to normal. All orders from this site, as well as FamilyRootsPublishing.com are now again being shipped within 24 hours, weekends excluded.

Just a note to say that Patty and I will be on vacation in Florida - and on to the Caribbean with the RootsMagic Cruise between the 7th and the 19th. Any orders placed at GermanMapGuide.com or FamilyRootsPublishing.com will be filled and shipped on November 20. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but this is the first vacation in 8 years of so - and we plan to enjoy it!

The Ancestry.de site has about 1500 historic German postcards posted online, dated 1893 to 1963.

These cards come from Mary Martin Postcards in Maryville, Maryland. They can be searched by place - or you can browse by place, and find cards of interest. Keep in mind that this collection is made up of only 1500 cards, so chances are not very high of finding cards of your small ancestral village, but it’s worth a look.