·        This month’s guest is Luana Darby from Lineages by Luana http://www.lineagesbyluana.com.

·        The International Germanic Genealogy Conference will take place in Minneapolis from July 28 to 30, 2017. For more information see the website of the International German Genealogy Partnership at http://www.iggpartner.org/.

·        More and more evangelical church records are now available online at www.archion.de, a website by the Evangelical Church of Germany. The church archives of Oldenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and the former Province of Saxony (church archive Magdeburg) are not taking part. To check if the records you are looking for are available check here https://www.archion.de/en/search/. To see which records have recently been uploaded follow this link: https://www.archion.de/en/news/. All that information is available without subscription!

·        Luana Darby’s tip on how to find you ancestor’s religion from records in the USA see http://germangenealogygirl.com/methodology-finding-an-ancestors-religion/

·        Information on the Janus Projekt (digitization of German records by Ancestry) can be found here: http://germangenealogygirl.com/ancestrys-german-janus-projekt/

·        German history:

-     Franco/German war of 1870/1871

-     The German Reich is formed in January 1871, the Prussian King Wilhelm I becomes the first German Emporer.

Important to know:

-     There only were several independent states, kingdoms, duchies before 1871, each of them with their own legal system.

-     Legislation is harmonized/ new legislation comes into place after 1871.

Examples:

-     German Civil Law on January 1, 1900

-     Civil marriage on March 1, 1875

-     Civil registration was incorporated in Prussia on 1 October 1874 and in the entire German Reich on 1 January 1876.

-     There also are earlier civil records in the Rhineland, Bremen and Lübeck still from the time Germany was under French rule.

·        German for Genealogists: Standesamt see http://germangenealogygirl.com/german-for-genealogists-episode-1-standesamt/

·        The “Rhineland Folder” (Rhineland, Prussia, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1533-1950) at Ancestry holds records from many other places than the Rheinland as well. Use the search bar to be sure not to miss anything!

·        Travel in Germany – when planning to do research, plan in advance! When using the German railroad see www.bahn.de.

·        Next episode on April 1, 2017, my guest will be Kim Ashford from the International German Genealogy Partnership.