[Research Guidance: Germany - Research Outline] Research Guidance Version Of Data : 6/8/2001

Table of Contents
Introduction
German Search Strategies
Records At The Family History Library
Familysearch™
The Family History Library Catalog
Archives And Libraries
Biography
Cemeteries
Census
Church Directories
Church History
Church Records
     General Historical Background
     Information Recorded In Church Records
     Locating Church Records
     Search Strategies
Civil Registration
     General Historical Background
     Regional Differences
     Information Recorded In Civil Registers
     Locating Civil Registration Records
Court Records
Directories
Dwellings
Emigration And Immigration
     Finding The Emigrant's Town Of Origin
     Emigration From Germany
     Records Of German Emigrants In Their Destination Countries
Gazetteers
Genealogy
Handwriting
Heraldry
Historical Geography
History
Jewish Records
Land And Property
Language And Languages
Maps
Military Records
     Types Of Military Records
     Foreign Military Service
     Locating Military Records
     Military History
Names, Personal
Naturalization And Citizenship
Newspapers
Nobility
Obituaries
Occupations
Periodicals
Population
Probate Records
Schools
Societies
Other Records
For Further Reading
Comments And Suggestions

MAPS

Maps can help you find where your ancestors lived. Maps can show churches, geographical features, transportation routes, and neighboring towns. Historical maps are especially useful for understanding boundary changes.

Maps may be published individually or in collections called atlases. Maps may also be included in gazetteers Look this term up in the glossary. , guidebooks, local histories, and history texts.

There are many types of maps. Each can help you in a different way. Historical maps describe the growth and development of countries. They show boundaries, migration routes, settlement patterns, military campaigns, and other historical information. Road maps provide details on highways, rivers, and town size. Street maps are extremely helpful when researching in large cities such as Berlin.

Using Maps

Maps must be used carefully for several reasons:

Often several places have the same name. For example, 92 towns in present-day Germany are called Steinbach.

The spellings and names of some towns may have changed since your ancestors lived there. Some localities have different names in different languages. For example, the city formerly known as Breslau (Germany) was called Wroclaw (Poland) after 1945.

Place-names are often misspelled in English- language sources. Difficult names may have been shortened and important diacritical marks omitted. For example in English, München is called Munich; Köln is known as Cologne. Some place-names were greatly altered. For example, the village of Lösenbach was recorded in American records as Loose Creek. (The -bach ending means creek in English.)

Political boundaries are not clearly indicated on all maps.

Finding a Specific Town on the Map

To do successful German research, you must identify the town where your ancestor lived. Because many towns have the same name, you may need some additional information before you can find the correct town on a map.

Gazetteers can help you identify the government district your ancestor's town was in. With this information, you may be able to distinguish between places with the same name. See the “Gazetteers” and “Historical Geography” sections of this outline for more information. Along with gazetteers, check histories, family records, and other sources to learn all you can about your ancestor's area. The following information can be very helpful:

The government administrative districts in which your ancestor's town was located.

Your ancestor's state or province.

The name of the parish where your ancestor was baptized or married.

Places where related ancestors lived.

The size of your ancestor's town.

The occupation of your ancestor or his or her relatives. (This information may indicate the town size or industries of the town.)

Nearby localities, such as large cities.

Nearby features, such as rivers and mountains.

Industries of the area.

Other names the town was known by.

The more information you can gather about the town where your ancestor lived, the better chance you have of finding it on a map.

Finding Maps and Atlases

Collections of maps and atlases are available at many historical societies and at public and university libraries.

The Family History Library has a good collection of German maps and atlases. These are listed in the Locality Search of the catalog under:

GERMANY - MAPS

Two general maps of Germany are found at the beginning of this outline. Listed below is the most detailed map of Germany at the Family History Library:

Königliche Preußische Landesaufnahme. Kartographische Abteilung. Karte des Deutschen Reiches (Map of the German Empire). Scale 1:100,000. Berlin: Königliche Preußischen Landesaufnahme, 1914-1917. (FHL film 068814; computer number 23525.) This map will help you find places in the former German Empire as they existed from 1871 to 1914. The detailed maps on this microfilm are in numerical order. The identification numbers on the detailed maps correspond to the small numbers in the upper right corner of each grid square on the first several overview maps.

The following are helpful atlases for Germany:

Auto Atlas Deutschland. Scale 1:200,000. Berlin: RV Verlag: Berlin, 1997-. (FHL book 943 E7a; computer number 394143.)

Der Grosse V.A.G. Atlas (The great V.A.G. atlas). Scale 1:200,000. Berlin: Reise-und Verkehrsverlag, Annual. (FHL book 940 E7gv 1991-92; computer number 639110.) This is an excellent atlas of Germany. It has an index of cities and towns that makes finding locations easy. It also has some maps of neighboring countries that are on a smaller scale than the maps of Germany. Street maps for several larger cities are also included. Editions published before 1991 are not as detailed for the areas that were then in East Germany.

Der Grosse Shell Atlas (The great Shell atlas). Scale 1:500,000. Ulm/Donau: Franz Spiegel Buch, Annual. (Not at Family History Library.) This atlas contains maps for both western and eastern Germany. The maps are on a smaller scale than those in the atlas listed above. This atlas is indexed and contains street maps of some larger cities. Several neighboring countries are also featured in this atlas.

Stier, Hans-Erich. Westermann Grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (Westermann atlas of world history). 8th ed. Braunschweig: Georg Westermann, 1972. (FHL book Ref 940 E3we; computer number 190050.) This is an excellent historical atlas.

You can purchase German maps and postal code books and get current prices from:

Genealogy Unlimited
P.O. Box 537
Orem, UT 84059-0537
USA
Telephone: 800-666-4363

Return to top of page

Previous Document Next Document

©1998, 2001 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. No part of this document may be reprinted, posted on-line, or reproduced in any form for any purpose without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
[FamilySearch^TM: Research Guidance
Version of Data: 6/8/2001]