Skip to main content
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.
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
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
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 8,035
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 ...
Veverke's user avatar
  • 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" ...
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 8,035
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

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
  • 18.9k
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, ...
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 8,035
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 ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 5,455
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
  • 5,455
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 ...
lkessler's user avatar
  • 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 ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 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 [...
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 8,035
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
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.
lejonet's user avatar
  • 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 ...
jadepx's user avatar
  • 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 ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 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” = ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 5,455
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 ...
Jan Murphy's user avatar
  • 25.8k
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 ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Erin's user avatar
  • 51
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 ...
lejonet's user avatar
  • 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 ...
bgwiehle's user avatar
  • 8,035
5 votes

What happened to Gustav Adolf Neumann - part II?

Let's start by clarifying some points in your question. Passenger Lists Passenger lists for this period (Castle Garden) are US Customs lists rather than immigration lists as we see from the Port of ...
Jan Murphy's user avatar
  • 25.8k
5 votes

Is M.-Gladbach an abbreviation for Mönchengladbach in the Verlustlisten 1. Weltkrieg?

Yes. Mönchengladbach was called München-Gladbach (shortened to M.-Gladbach) between 1888 and 1929, then Gladbach-Rheydt, then München Gladbach without the hyphen, then Mönchen Gladbach. Only in 1960 ...
user10679518's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

Reading Johann Georg Burkhardt's profession

After reading up a bit on tanning techniques, I am fairly confident the word in question is Weißgerbers, i.e. the genitive case of Weißgerber. This term denotes a tanner (Gerber) operating with ...
ad42's user avatar
  • 561
5 votes
Accepted

Was Catharine Elisabeth Schweitzer from Weiterode baptised twice?

Note that the record of January 1822 has a small cross beside it. This usually means that the child did not survive very long, and I have seen instances (in Southern Germany) where a separate burial ...
user3697176's user avatar
  • 1,601
4 votes
Accepted

Reading name and occupation of 18th century ancestors from Kirchheim unter Teck, Württemberg, Germany?

As a descendant of Tobias Brackenhammer (my great-great-great-grandfather), I can confirm the following personal data: Tobias Brackenhammer (13.06.1780 in Gechingen near Calw - 04.10.1840 in ...
Dieter Brackenhammer's user avatar

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible