[Research Guidance: How to Use the Meyers Gazetteer]

Guide
Tips
Background
Where to Find It

Getting Started
What You Are Looking For
What Information You Need
Step 1. Find how your locality will be written in the Meyers gazetteer.
Step 2. Determine which kingdom, province, or duchy your locality was in.
Step 3. Record the information in your research notes.
Step 4. Identify the governmental district and other districts to which your town belonged.

Getting Started

This gazetteer will help you identify and verify German localities, based on the 1871 German Empire, as they are listed in the gazetteer Meyers Orts- und Verkehrslexikon des deutschen Reichs.

For more information on the Meyers gazetteer, see also Background.

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What You Are Looking For

In the Meyers gazetteer, abbreviations are used to stand for different record jurisdictions. You can find the following information in a Meyers locality entry:

The name of the kingdom, province, or duchy to which the town belonged.

The name of the county seat to which the town belonged.

The names of the places where district, court, military, and civil registry records were kept, if the town did not keep them.

The denomination of the church if a parish was in the town.

Not all German localities are listed in the Meyers gazetteer. For additional information on German localities, see Tip 1.

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What Information You Need

You need to know only the name of a place of birth or christening.

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Steps

These 4 steps will guide you in finding your locality in the Meyers gazetteer and in identifying where the different records for your town were kept.

Step 1. Find how your locality will be written in the Meyers gazetteer.

Meyers is written in German in the old fracture or Gothic print and uses abbreviations extensively. To view the alphabet showing the Gothic upper and lower case letters with their Roman letter equivalents, see Tip 2.

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Step 2. Determine which kingdom, province, or duchy your locality was in.

In every complete entry, the Meyers gazetteer identifies the kingdom, province, or duchy to which a locality belonged. This information follows the locality name.

For a list of kingdom, province, and duchy names in Gothic and Roman print, see Tip 3.

For localities that do not have a complete entry, see Tip 4.

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Step 3. Record the information in your research notes.

In the Meyers gazetteer, if an abbreviation or series of abbreviations is followed by a comma (,) or semicolon (;) then the town had the records which were associated with the abbreviation(s). For example,

(StdA.) is the abbreviation for Standesamt (civil registry office). If it is followed by a comma or semicolon, then the town had its own civil registry office. If there is no comma or semicolon, then the abbreviation will be followed by the name of the town that had the civil registry office.

The Meyers gazetteer will indicate if a town had its own parish and the denomination of the parish. It will not tell you where parish records were kept if the place did not have a parish or if the denomination that is given is not the one. The two main denominations were Catholic

(kath. Pfk.) and Lutheran

(ev. Pfk.). The Pfk. means Pfarrkirche (parish).

Marriage contracts and probate records are often found in court records. The

(AG.) is the abbreviation for the court district in which these records were found. The above information for the civil registry office applies to the court district as well.

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Step 4. Identify the governmental district and other districts to which your town belonged.

The German kingdoms and duchies used different names for their governmental districts. The Meyers gazetteer identifies the districts for each village.

The abbreviation in Gothic print.

The Roman equivalent.

The German name for the district.

The type of district (region, county seat, district).

The name of the kingdom or duchy.

(AH.) Amtshauptmannschaft (county seat in Sachsen - kingdom)

(BA.) Bezirksamt (county seat in Bayern)

(Bkdo.) Bezirkskommando (military command, in all areas)

(DomA.) Dom�neamt (county seat in Mecklenburg Strelitz)

(Kr.) Kreis (district in Prussian provinces, county seat in Baden, Braunschweig, Hessen and Waldeck)

(KrH.) Kreishauptmannschaft (county seat in Saxony - kingdom)

(Kt.) Kanton (county seat in Alsace-Lorraine)

(LrA.) Landratsamt (district in Th�ringen)

(OA.) Oberamt (county seat in W�rttemberg)

(OLG.) Oberlandesgericht (county seat in Schaumburg-Lippe)

(RB.) Regierungsbezirk (county seat in Prussian provinces and region in Bavaria)

(RittA.) Ritteramt (county seat in Mecklenburg Schwerin)

(VerwA.) Verwaltungsamt (county seat in Th�ringen)

To determine the districts for your locality, see Tip 5.

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Version of Data: 6/7/2001]