Hi James, There is not a central repository in Germany for finding your ancestors... so it is important to try to determine the city or town they came from. I know that is part of the problem because all you may find in US records is that they came from Baden which is only somewhat helpful. 1. Look at all original documentation you can in the US... indexes and transcriptions often miss some details that might give you the town or city. Death certificates and marriage certificates may have this besides passenger lists used for immigration. If you are really lucky the naturalization papers may have it but in my family all they ever cited was the country not even the region like Baden! 2. Join surname lists or boards and see if you can find where others with the same surname came from. This just may lead you to the right place but if it is a common last name may be of little help. 3. Don't assume the spelling you see is what was used where they came from. This is really important because many folks had spellings Anglicized via the immigration process and census takers were not always great spellers or listeners! Also spelling was not standardized until about the mid 1900s because people were not as hung up on using one spelling. I have many documents were spelling shifts like Reis vs Reiss vs Ries vs Riess and Verner Werner Woerner or even Warner... Some letters were often mixed up.. D and T, P and B, S and Z (Simmerman vs Zimmerman (and sometimes a double n at the end). Fischer, Fisher and Fizure.... My Gebhardt (not from Baden but from other places in Germany) shows up as Gebhardt, Gebhart, Gebhard, Gephart, Gephard, and Gephardt.... 4. When posting for help give the full name and anything you do know... birth day, approximate birth year... spouse name, religion (because some towns in Germany were mainly Catholic and others Lutheran or Baptist (Anabaptist), etc. Once again not 100% but it can help narrow the search. Sometimes family stories help and sometimes they are just plain wrong... follow their lead but let it go if you find something that points you elsewhere... case in point, my mother told me that my Reiss Woerner grandparents came from the same town, Baden Baden... well neither came from their... Reiss came from Rettigheim, Baden and Woerner came from Appenweier, Karlsruhl so much for family stories.... 5. Interview all the old people in your family... sometimes they have info they don't realize they have... 6. Church records can be no pun intended, a God send, because often immigrants clustered together in a community and went to the same church... look at who were the godparents and if any parents are listed. At the Shrine of St. Joseph Church in St. Louis we found a wealth of info in baptism records which helped us find family.... 7. Look at the http://www.online-ofb.de/ this is the Germen GenWiki site. You can use an online free translator like google language or www.freetranslation.com to translate the website. You might get lucky and find your person! 8. Check online geneanet.org (there is both a free and paid side)... you might find clues there from other family posting info... of course remember these are user donated trees so they can have wrong info... check anything you find against real records. And LDS https://familysearch.org/search 9. try browsing through http://www.dad-recherche.de/hmb/Deutsche%20Auswanderer-Datenbank%20English.htm http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wggerman/ http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/web/54816 http://www.auswanderer-bw.de/sixcms/detail.php?template=a_artikel&id=6591&sprache=en http://www.immigrantships.net/ Hope that helps! Laura >________________________________ > From: James Schafer <bro_james@hotmail.com> >To: BADEN-WURTTEMBERG@rootsweb.com >Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 5:24 PM >Subject: [BW] Best way to find information > > >I'm a newbie and want to post a request for help in finding my >ancestors. BUT, I want to follow the correct protocol, therefore, is >there a right/wrong way to post requests? > >Specifically, I'm trying to locate ancestors of family members who came >from the Grand Duchy of Baden, but that is all I know about their >location before coming to the USA. I have documentation for my ancestor >after he arrived in the USA, but none beyond our shores. > >Thanks for your help, >James Schafer >SETexas, USA > > >--- >This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. >http://www.avast.com > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >
Laura, Laura, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. You have given me so much info to use and I appreciate it so much. I'll have to take my time and go through each of your suggestions 1 by 1. I did notice #5 as I went through them. Problem there is I am the oldest and for the most part the only one of my family still around. I do have some younger cousins, but that is it. My Grandfather had some brother's, but I'm not sure about their families. I'll have to get the brother's names from a census and see if I can trace anyone down. Anyway, thank you so much for this tremendous information. I know this will help so much. I'll post what information I have later. James On 2/14/2014 6:32 PM, Ronald and Laura wrote: > Hi James, There is not a central repository in Germany for finding your ancestors... so it is important to try to determine the city or town they came from. I know that is part of the problem because all you may find in US records is that they came from Baden which is only somewhat helpful. > > 1. Look at all original documentation you can in the US... indexes and transcriptions often miss some details that might give you the town or city. Death certificates and marriage certificates may have this besides passenger lists used for immigration. If you are really lucky the naturalization papers may have it but in my family all they ever cited was the country not even the region like Baden! > > 2. Join surname lists or boards and see if you can find where others with the same surname came from. This just may lead you to the right place but if it is a common last name may be of little help. > > 3. Don't assume the spelling you see is what was used where they came from. This is really important because many folks had spellings Anglicized via the immigration process and census takers were not always great spellers or listeners! Also spelling was not standardized until about the mid 1900s because people were not as hung up on using one spelling. I have many documents were spelling shifts like > Reis vs Reiss vs Ries vs Riess and Verner Werner Woerner or even Warner... Some letters were often mixed up.. D and T, P and B, S and Z (Simmerman vs Zimmerman (and sometimes a double n at the end). Fischer, Fisher and Fizure.... My Gebhardt (not from Baden but from other places in Germany) shows up as Gebhardt, Gebhart, Gebhard, Gephart, Gephard, and Gephardt.... > > 4. When posting for help give the full name and anything you do know... birth day, approximate birth year... spouse name, religion (because some towns in Germany were mainly Catholic and others Lutheran or Baptist (Anabaptist), etc. Once again not 100% but it can help narrow the search. Sometimes family stories help and sometimes they are just plain wrong... follow their lead but let it go if you find something that points you elsewhere... case in point, my mother told me that my Reiss Woerner grandparents came from the same town, Baden Baden... well neither came from their... Reiss came from Rettigheim, Baden and Woerner came from Appenweier, Karlsruhl so much for family stories.... > > 5. Interview all the old people in your family... sometimes they have info they don't realize they have... > > 6. Church records can be no pun intended, a God send, because often immigrants clustered together in a community and went to the same church... look at who were the godparents and if any parents are listed. At the Shrine of St. Joseph Church in St. Louis we found a wealth of info in baptism records which helped us find family.... > > 7. Look at the http://www.online-ofb.de/ this is the Germen GenWiki site. You can use an online free translator like google language or www.freetranslation.com to translate the website. You might get lucky and find your person! > > 8. Check online geneanet.org (there is both a free and paid side)... you might find clues there from other family posting info... of course remember these are user donated trees so they can have wrong info... check anything you find against real records. And LDS https://familysearch.org/search > > 9. try browsing through http://www.dad-recherche.de/hmb/Deutsche%20Auswanderer-Datenbank%20English.htm > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wggerman/ > http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/web/54816 > > http://www.auswanderer-bw.de/sixcms/detail.php?template=a_artikel&id=6591&sprache=en > > http://www.immigrantships.net/ > > > Hope that helps! > > Laura > > > > > > > >> ________________________________ >> From: James Schafer <bro_james@hotmail.com> >> To: BADEN-WURTTEMBERG@rootsweb.com >> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 5:24 PM >> Subject: [BW] Best way to find information >> >> >> I'm a newbie and want to post a request for help in finding my >> ancestors. BUT, I want to follow the correct protocol, therefore, is >> there a right/wrong way to post requests? >> >> Specifically, I'm trying to locate ancestors of family members who came > >from the Grand Duchy of Baden, but that is all I know about their >> location before coming to the USA. I have documentation for my ancestor >> after he arrived in the USA, but none beyond our shores. >> >> Thanks for your help, >> James Schafer >> SETexas, USA >> >> >> --- >> This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. >> http://www.avast.com >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
James, could your ancestors have been Schofers? Schafer is so close. Just a thought Jane -----Original Message----- From: baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of James Schafer Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 4:52 PM To: Ronald and Laura; baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [BW] Best way to find information Laura, Laura, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. You have given me so much info to use and I appreciate it so much. I'll have to take my time and go through each of your suggestions 1 by 1. I did notice #5 as I went through them. Problem there is I am the oldest and for the most part the only one of my family still around. I do have some younger cousins, but that is it. My Grandfather had some brother's, but I'm not sure about their families. I'll have to get the brother's names from a census and see if I can trace anyone down. Anyway, thank you so much for this tremendous information. I know this will help so much. I'll post what information I have later. James