15
votes
Accepted
German or Czech town (or city)
This seems to say "Auscha," which is indeed the German name of a town known in Czech as Úštěk.
- 274
10
votes
Is there such a thing as Ashkenazi Jewish surnames?
Ashkenazi Surnames really only came about in the early 1800s actually. The Jews of Western Europe (Germany, France, and England etc) took surnames sooner than their coreligionists in Eastern Europe. ...
- 161
9
votes
Seeking details of travel to South Africa in 1920s
If you are on Facebook, there is a closed and private group called 'South African Genealogy' that has lots of helpful and active members who know their way around the South African information sites.
...
- 341
9
votes
Accepted
Translating profession from two records written in Kurrentshrift
The occupation is
Möbelpolierer
[furniture polisher]
Probably different tasks depending on the employer: at a residence, a furniture store or a factory
- 8,000
8
votes
Accepted
Reference Key for Injuries for WWI German Casualty Lists?
Casualties in the Verlustlisten include the following keys and abbreviations:
t or † (“tot”) – dead
gefallen – killed in action
† an seinen schweren Wunden – died because of his serious injuries
v. ...
- 5,455
7
votes
Accepted
Is there such a thing as Ashkenazi Jewish surnames?
I am not an expert, but am adding my humble bits to the answer:
There is no such thing as a jewish surname, indeed.
First of all a surname itself is not a jewish thing. Jews are not indetified by ...
- 429
7
votes
Accepted
Interpreting 17th century German dates?
original, probably an exact transcript of the church register entry
"verm. 2. post trin. 1649"
with abbreviations expanded, German and Latin
"vermahlt 2. [Sonntag] post Trinitatis 1649"
...
- 8,000
7
votes
Decoding trophy cards of german soldiers (WWII)
I can confirm that the text on both cards is indeed in German. Your first card is dated to 1920, the second one seems to have been stamped by the post office in 1917. As far as I know Sütterlin was ...
- 561
7
votes
Information and photos of WW2 RAF aircraft and crew?
This article describes the incident:
http://aircrewremembered.com/roy-arnold.html
and leads me to search for "Oblt Walter Schneider" which comes up with another website or two.
https://...
- 71
6
votes
Reading given name of German great-grandaunt?
I also found it useful to have this PDF around for comparing the letters. The benefit being you can zoom it in quite a bit:
https://feefhs.org/sites/default/files/guide/german-gothic.pdf
Once you get ...
- 211
6
votes
German POWs in Camp Upton and Fort Dupont
The Delaware Military History organization may have some useful material, including pictures and camp activity reports and newsletters.
The National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) has basic ...
- 226
6
votes
Accepted
Struggling to read birth record of my German Jewish great-grandfather
The father's given name is Marx Mayer. At the first appearance of this name he is further identified by the words "der Kaufmann" (merchant or business man). At the bottom of the document his name ...
- 1,601
6
votes
What is my Lineage?
Germany is usually considered to be part of Western Europe, therefore Western European would be the natural option to choose.
However assuming you are American I would be surprised if all your ...
- 18.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Is there any place like "Wertinberge" in Germany?
I read Woitimberge or Wertimberge here. Both are not place names.
I guess the census taker did not understand the place name correctly and spelling the place name might also be influenced from local ...
- 5,455
6
votes
Accepted
What does 1898 wedding/memorial announcement from Germany, Austria, or Slovenia say?
It is a wedding souvenir and it is in German
Alois Kowatsch Josefa Kowatsch geb Gregortschitsch
Vermählt
10. Januar 1898 zu Oestereich.
that is:
[groom] Alois Kowatsch
[bride] Josefa Kowatsch, ...
- 8,000
6
votes
Bauch Family records Berlin-Charlottenburg
Ancestry.com has a marriage record ($) for Alois Bauch (marriage to Selma Günther on 28 March 1905). A side note lists only one son, born 1907 (number 160/1907 Wilmersdorf), who married in 1940 in ...
- 5,455
6
votes
What to do with late mother's boxes of documents?
It seems that you, her son, has acquired your mother's materials and has already invested at least some time thinking about this as you are now asking this question of what to do with it.
Since you ...
- 16.9k
6
votes
Finding recent death records in Germany?
There is no single resource for such records from recent decades. These records are kept in local registrar offices (Standesämter) and are subject to regulations according to Personenstandsgesetz for ...
- 5,455
6
votes
Translating WW1 German postcard?
Sectioned using photo orientation in question. German transcript (mis-spellings per original), followed by English translation:
[top left]
Von
Zum An[d]enken
1916
From ___
For remembrance
1916
[...
- 8,000
6
votes
Working on pre-16th century German genealogy
There are a lot of things going on in this question. I'll try to untangle a few of them.
First, the word "ben" is Hebrew for "son of" (see eg https://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/...
- 855
6
votes
Accepted
Is M.-Gladbach an abbreviation for Mönchengladbach in the Verlustlisten 1. Weltkrieg?
Yes. The place however indicates the place of birth or sometimes the last residence before being drafted. The date should be the birth date.
- 5,455
6
votes
Identification of church in Magdeburg
I just browsed through several of the churches, and I think it might be Sankt Gertraud (Wikipedia article). If you look at some pictures from image search (I used DuckDuckGo and Google), the front and ...
- 1,080
6
votes
Identification of church in Magdeburg
Although jadepx was faster than me, I want to add an answer to this interesting question. I have been in Magdeburg several times and did not recognize this church.
So I turned to Liste von ...
- 5,455
6
votes
Accepted
Where was Johann Wilhelm Schweizer from?
The word you are looking at is not a place name:
Schweizer, Johann Wilhelm, Bürger und Bäckermeister hier, ein Wittwer
He was a local (“hier” = here)
He was a widower (“ein Wittwer” = “Witwer” = ...
- 5,455
5
votes
Seeking death/burial record in Germany for man born 1922?
In Germany, records on birth, marriage and death are kept by the ''Standesamt'' (registrar’s office).
Depending on the kind of record, they are kept at least for:
110 years (birth records)
80 years ...
- 5,455
5
votes
Forced Emigration of Zipf ancestors from South-West Germany (Baden/Wurtenburg) in mid 19th century?
Forced emigration did happen in Baden Germany during the early to mid 1850s. I'm currently researching two towns that sent people to America this way.
On January 2, 1855, sixty-nine people left ...
- 51
5
votes
When was Paul Theodore Spranger deported back to Germany?
Unfortunately there is no single list in the UK for internees. The National Archives have a guide which covers the various items they hold, both of internees and those exempted for internment, but ...
- 1,346
5
votes
Looking for names of grandparents in Magdeburg, Germany when father born 1896?
Much of the advice given in the previous question Tracing US ancestor back to Germany? will also apply to this question -- in this answer I will add information specific to immigrants to the US during ...
- 25.8k
5
votes
Looking for grave of German soldier who died in World War II
The German War Graves Commission (Volksbund) is the authority that maintains a database of German war graves (especially World War I and World War II).
The only mandatory information you need for a ...
- 5,455
5
votes
Finding parents for early-20th century immigrant to US from Germany?
Building on the previous answer with some specifics:
Since you already know that her last residence before emigrating was in Berlin and you have the alternate surname spellings, we can assume that ...
- 8,000
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible