Thank you Ernst-Peter for your valuable input on where to possibly find records pre-dating church Matrikel books. You guys (Germans living in Germany) have it all over us poor German-Americans in accessing these records and knowing where they might be found. With us, it's just hit or miss. In my Gau-Odernheim case (a maternal line), I was just very lucky in contacting the parish priest who knew where the records I needed were located, and he was kind enough to forward them on. Co-incidentally, those Verbandsgemeinde records from Alzey arrived on the eve of my departure for Iphofen, UF where I would spend five weeks researching my father's family with phenominal success, tracing scores of lines into the early 1500s. Those Iphofen records ,fortunately, were not destroyed in the 30-Years War, and although the kath. archives in Bamberg had microfilmed the records, the earliest(and latest) books were still in the parish. The mid-range books (ca. 1700-1800s) were kept in the Bamberg archive, so I had to travel there to research and to connect the various lines. I must say, it is Soooo much easier using the original churchbooks than using microfilm or microfiche. Thank you still again for all your valuable information. I have printed it out, and will save it for future reference. I'm sure your list of repositories will come in handy for my future research. A belated Merry Christmas to you, and Best Wishes for a Happy & Healthy New Year!!! Madeline Galbraith geb. Bovery/Boveri ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:33:37 +0100 From: Ernst-Peter Winter <e.p.winter@t-online.de> Subject: Re: [HESSE] Possible Earlier Hesse Records To: hesse@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <4D167F51.6070909@t-online.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Hi Madeline, it's very difficult to find out where the informations on your ancestors can be found in the yeras before 1800. You have to know, to what territory belongs this village and where could the documents be found. Some villages belongs to more than one government. You have to know the religion of your ancestors to look up the right church records. The churchbooks of Rheinhessen (with Gau-Odernheim) where collected by the french government an given to the political community. Some of the books came back to the parishes later after the french priod. So you can find them at - the parishes - the deanery archive - the archive of the bishopric - the archive of the community (Verbandsgemeinde) - the archive of the state Some informations of the Rheinhessen Area could be found at Paris/France or Wien/Austria. > I then wrote directly to the kath. church in Gau-Odernheim inquiring > about earlier records, and the priest forwarded my letter to a area > civil administration group in Alzey(I think the name was a > Verbindungsgemeinschaft, or something like that), and they sent me a > wealth of additional information going back four more generations, > female ancestors included. I was dumbstruck. > > So, even if church records may (or may not) have been destroyed by war, > there is a POSSIBILITY that some other records may still exist, and it > worth taking a shot at. Sometimes it is possible to find other records > besides churchbook records, > ... and in many cases duplicate church records exist in other repositories. Duplicates of church records did not exist for the time of the 30-year-war and earlier. The catholic parishes of archbishopric Mainz begins at 1754, for the western banks of the river Rhine you get Zivilstandsregister since 1798, and Hesse-Darmstadt begins at 1808 with duplicates. There might be more informations, but it's thrilling like a crime to find out where. And often you need a unforeseen event ... Ernst-Peter (Winter) ------------------------------

I was wondering if anyone can give me more information on the following people: Johanna Heinrich PAULJohann Conrad PAUL (b. abt 1712, d. 23-3-1753 Altwildungen, Hessen, Germany)Johannetta Elisabeth Schimmel (b. abt. 1718, d. 11-4-1758 Altwildungen, Hessen, Germany) Any information is helpful. I was able to trace this far back but looking for more information. I am looking for parents, sisters, brothers, and any other family history.  Thank you very much for the help. Claudette m. Beermanpapiamento2001@yahoo.comHaverhill, MA, USA