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17 votes
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Reading given name of German great-grandaunt?

The name is Agnes. You can compare each of the letters to those shown in this BYU Script Tutorial for German handwriting. I extracted the relevant letters from the alphabet image on that site, and ...
Harry V.'s user avatar
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15 votes
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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.
phoog's user avatar
  • 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. ...
Miles H's user avatar
  • 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. ...
EveryBitHelps's user avatar
9 votes
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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
bgwiehle's user avatar
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8 votes
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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. ...
lejonet's user avatar
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7 votes
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How should I interpret this Buchenwald camp card?

I understand it as follows: He arrived in Buchenwald 26 January 1945 ("26.1.45 eingel.") and was send to Sachsenhausen on 6 February 1945. This is however not verifiable just from the card. The ...
lejonet's user avatar
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7 votes
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Pre 1794 records for Rothenditmold, Kassel, Hessen, Germany?

I am no export on Hesse, but I did a little research: Your LAGIS results are civil registration which started in 1874. Church records for several parishes in today’s city of Kassel were destroyed ...
lejonet's user avatar
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7 votes
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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 ...
Veverke's user avatar
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7 votes
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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" ...
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 7,946
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 ...
ad42's user avatar
  • 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://...
nelgin's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Luke Quinane's user avatar
6 votes

History of German small town of Angloh?

Technique Generally when you cannot find information on very small or insignificant placenames, you research nearby larger places (because events may apply to a larger area) or the next placename in ...
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 7,946
6 votes

Reading information about illegitimate children in Brackenhammer family, Kirchheim, Germany

Unless a specific line needs to addressed further, the transcript is as complete as possible at this time. (Image unavoidable, tables not possible here). "?" where unsure. s/o = struck out Notes: ...
bgwiehle's user avatar
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6 votes
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Finding details of where Polish soldier in German Army was living before Great War?

The 113th infantry regiment was from Baden (Freiburg im Breisgau). The garrison for the 113th infantry regiment can be looked up online, e.g. in GenWiki or in the literature ( Das 5. Badische ...
lejonet's user avatar
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6 votes

How common was it for a father to be at the birth in the late 1700s early 1800s?

While the father may have been present or nearby for the births of his children, more likely, a female relative or a mid-wife actually assisted. Especially first births were likely to take the ...
bgwiehle's user avatar
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6 votes
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Finding records of Berlin Airlift Service by a Whitehead?

The "Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation" have a website with a fair amount of information. That includes "The Men Who Participated". That has a list of units that were involved, only some of which ...
AndyW's user avatar
  • 4,427
6 votes

Verifying that Josef Berg died as shown in WWI German military record and finding his grave?

For searching in the Verlustlisten you shouldn't use Ancestry’s incomplete version, but the complete and manually indexed version by Compgen - Verein für Computergenealogie: Verlustlisten Erster ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 5,427
6 votes
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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 ...
user3697176's user avatar
  • 1,591
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 ...
Giorgio's user avatar
  • 226
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 ...
Harry V.'s user avatar
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6 votes
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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, ...
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 7,946
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 ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 5,427
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 ...
lkessler's user avatar
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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 ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 5,427
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 [...
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 7,946
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/...
aem's user avatar
  • 855
6 votes
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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.
lejonet's user avatar
  • 5,427
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 ...
jadepx's user avatar
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