Hi all Hope everyone had great holidays. Back in the fall of last year I was researching Johannes Kreutzer b.1752 d. 1824 from Rudin, Kurfalz, Kurbener, Germany. I am unable to find Rudin or KurFalz or Kurbener in Germany. I would guess the names have changed since then but I am not finding any information of the change. I am interested in how to research were my family is from in Germany. I have read that Germany kept great records in the 18th century and earlier. But you have to know where your family is from. I love doing the research I just need a place to start. I would appreciate any ideas. Thanks so much Sheila Kreutzer Derevage

Hi Sheila.  It would be helpful to know whether the place reference was given for a time before or after 1800?  Also it might help to know the source of the reference.  The only thing that so far is clear to me is that Kurpfalz was one of the large countries whose territories now lie within the borders of Germany.  It was ruled by one of the Electors of the Empire.  Dick --- On Wed, 1/19/11, Sheila Derevage <[email protected]> wrote: From: Sheila Derevage <[email protected]> Subject: [GV] Guidence on researching Kreutzer family in Germany To: "German Russian Heritage" <[email protected]>, "Volga German List" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 2:26 PM Hi all Hope everyone had great holidays.   Back in the fall of last year I was researching Johannes Kreutzer b.1752 d. 1824 from Rudin, Kurfalz, Kurbener, Germany.  I am unable to find Rudin or KurFalz or Kurbener in Germany.  I would guess the names have changed since then but I am not finding any information of the change.   I am interested in how to research were my family is from in Germany.  I have read that Germany kept great records in the 18th century and earlier.  But you have to know where your family is from.   I love doing the research I just need a place to start.   I would appreciate any ideas.    Thanks so much Sheila Kreutzer Derevage ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Shiela, I would suggest that you contact Jerry Goertzen, regarding the 40 books designed to map out the "counties" of the 40 major regions of archaic Germany, and the subparishs contained within each. If one had access to the volumes one might scan the indexes for a familiar locality. Of course it would be useful if you could narrow the region down to specific states or provinces. If I remember correctly, Jerry had a librarian like position, and was responsible for purchases a majority of these volumes for his chapter's library. A sample of the type of data given is illustrated in the case below, described by Jerry Goertzen. "I don't have that volume in my library, but your Odenwald area would be in the Grandduchy of Baden, Mannheim Bezirk, Kreis Mosbach in the northern tip of Baden. Do you know any of the villages of your ancestors on the collatoral families? There were a number of villages in the Odenwald area. The Guide to German Parish Registers will locate a village and its parish and will give you the microfilm numbers of the Church Parish if they were filmed by the LDS. You would need to go through all the village microfilms to find the names if you don't have a village. The best way would be to contact one of the German Genealogical Resources or Archives (also listed in the book) for help to find your family. The book you would need would be Volum II of the German Parish Guides, "The Grandduchy of Baden". This book also contains a brief history aand timeline of Baden and sometime they list books of town histories that have many names in them. " I do have this particular volume, but it does not list the region you seek. This is only illustrative of the vast amount of data contained in these volumes, if you can narrow your search, or live near a library where you could scan their contents for the region you seek. Frank Jacobs ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sheila Derevage" <[email protected]> To: "German Russian Heritage" <[email protected]>; "Volga German List" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 1:26 PM Subject: [GV] Guidence on researching Kreutzer family in Germany > > Hi all > > Hope everyone had great holidays. Back in the fall of last year I was > researching Johannes Kreutzer b.1752 d. 1824 from Rudin, Kurfalz, > Kurbener, Germany. I am unable to find Rudin or KurFalz or Kurbener in > Germany. I would guess the names have changed since then but I am not > finding any information of the change. I am interested in how to > research were my family is from in Germany. I have read that Germany kept > great records in the 18th century and earlier. But you have to know where > your family is from. I love doing the research I just need a place to > start. I would appreciate any ideas. > Thanks so much > Sheila Kreutzer Derevage ======= Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found. (Email Guard: 7.0.0.18, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.16730) http://www.pctools.com/ =======