Doreen, in Germany the church records are continued till today. The year "1875" (Hannover) resp. "1874" (Prussia) means only, that on 01 Jan 1875 resp. on 01 Oct 1874 the civil records began. Those records are much more detailled than the church records. The church records of the former kingdom of Hannover before 1875 are in the Church Archives in Hannover. Unfortunately their homepage is available only in German. The catalogue of their collection is here: http://www.kirche-hannover.de/media/05fa89eed6945dae8888a4167f98536a.pdf keywords: Taufen = baptisms, Trauungen = marriages, Begräbnisse = burials, L = gaps As Joel already wrote, the original church records are in the parishes (in the Archives are only microfilms). So it's also possible to contact the parishes. If you already have exact places of births, you can try it. The civil records which I mentioned (beginning on 01 Jan 1875) are NOT in the parishes and NOT in the church Archives. They are in other local Archives. Sincerely, Stefan Rückling Berlin, Germany ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel S. Russell" <joelsr@gmail.com> To: "Doreen Jackson" <dorich40@yahoo.com>; <prussia-roots@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2012 10:20 PM Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Hannover information > Doreen, > > I've done quite a bit of research in Hannover and > Schaumburg-Lippe. I've had my best results from writing to the local > church and requesting assistance. I send the letters in German and > expect the reply in the same. In the majority of cases the Church > has passed my letter on to a local resident who has an interest in > local history. That person then responds to my request, sometimes in > English, but most often in German. My roots are in fairly small > towns or villages and the respondent is almost always related to me, > if sometimes distantly. Perhaps I've just been fortunate. I would > stress that you should write in German, find someone who knows the > language well or find one of the pre-written letters available > online. Do not rely on language translators, they mangle the > translation and are imperfect. I find them useful when getting a > response in German as I can get the gist of the letter, but I > wouldn't use one to send the letter. > > Regarding your request being around 1875. ALmost all of my families > came over in the 1840s and 50s, but I have found records of the > families and descendants of siblings who remained in Germany as late > as the early 1900s. Do you know the specific place your ancestor was > from? Email me directly if you want to discuss this further. > > Kind regards, > > Joel > http://www.rafert.org/home > > > At 02:10 PM 4/14/2012, Doreen Jackson wrote: >>Janet, you suggest the old fashioned way of writing letters to >>Hannover churches. Could you tell >>me how the dates go in these records. I am seeking information on >>ancestors in Hannover starting >>around 1875 would this be too late for church records ? >> >>Thankyou. >> >>Doreen >> >> >>________________________________ >> From: Linda Grinnell <fultimers@yahoo.com> >>To: "PRUSSIA-ROOTS@rootsweb.com" <PRUSSIA-ROOTS@rootsweb.com> >>Sent: Saturday, 14 April 2012, 13:28 >>Subject: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Hannover information >> >>Janet, >> >>Thanks so much for your ideas. I will be following up as soon as I >>can and will let the group know what I find. >> >>Linda >> >>Linda, have you tried to find these people on Family Search? Or have >>you tried Rootsweb's Global Connect to see if anyone else is >>researching those names and has posted info on them? >>http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi. Or how about >>Mocavo? http://www.mocavo.com/. >> >>If >>you've tried those without success you could try again the old >>fashioned way by writing letters to the Hannover evangelical churches. >>You can Google that for a list of them. I did that with some of my >>ancestors in Hamburg and the Dresden area. Hamburg no longer lets the >>churches do that - all the church books are at the main archives and you >>either have to go there yourself or hire a researcher and Hamburg >>records have not been filmed by Family Search. I don't know what the >>situation is with Hannover but it could be worth a try. You do have to >>write in German. Some can read English so I use both languages in my >>letters. Also some churches have email addresses and I have also >>written emails and received responses. >> >>Another thing I did was >>write letters (in German and English) to all the people with the last >>name that I was researching that I could find in the German phonebook >>online in the city my ancestor came from and actually found my last >>remaining relative from that line. >> >>You might try writing to a >>Hannover mail list and ask if anyone know of a reliable researcher if >>you end up needing to go that way. >> >>Hope something here will help, >>Janet >> >>------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>PRUSSIA-ROOTS-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 >>PRUSSIA-ROOTS-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 > PRUSSIA-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >