Geographical

There are many ways in which the geography of an area affects genealogical research procedures, some of these are also closely associated with historical events and could fall in either or both groups. The geography of an area may have been affected by political events as much as political events being affected by the geography, this would be true of wars as well as boundary changes between areas within Germany and with other countries, a person's occupation, such as farmer, miller, fisher, or miner, is affected by the geography as well. Climatic conditions affected the geographical movements of individuals. Similar to this were economic conditions and overcrowding. Another thing that was closely associated with the geography was the individual's religion.

Political

If a particular area in Germany was geographically valuable either commercially or politically, it is possible for it to have changed hands more than once between different kingdoms or countries. An area such as Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) was once a part of Charlemagne's empire in the 800s, the holy Roman-German Empire in the 1100s, and the French Empire in the 1700s. It became part of the German Empire in 1871, France in 1918, Germany in 1942, and finally France in 1945.

The following maps show the territorial growth of the kingdom of Prussia and are a good example of changes occurring within Germany:

Map of the territorial growth of the Kingdom of Prussia

With the conquerors often came their record keeping systems and their record types. In France the civil registration began in the early 1790s. Those areas of Germany that were occupied by France have their civil registry beginning in the late 1790s. In many areas of Germany, civil registry did not begin until the 1870s.

During the French revolution, many areas of Germany used the same calendar that was used in France and many of the records used in the Ostfriesland area of Germany are the same as those in Holland due to the Dutch influence. Because of the Danish influence, parts of Schleswig-Holstein used a similar patronymical naming system and their census and military records were also patterned after those in Denmark.

The area of the Pfalz (Palatinate) was not so much politically involved in the Thirty Years' war as were other areas, but it became the battleground for the French, Swedish, Spanish and the imperialists wars. Because of this, there was widespread destruction of both people and records in this area between 1622 and 1707. Many emigrants from this area fled to the main kingdom of Bavaria to which the Pfalz belonged. Many more fled Germany altogether and emigrated to America or England. Another political aspect of the geography of Germany was the fact that many of the German kingdoms were split up into several areas. The map in Fig. 1 shows those kingdoms where this condition existed.

There are several reasons why a knowledge of this is important in doing research.

Figure 1: Kingdoms

1. There may be two or more places by the same name and in the same kingdom but located geographically in completely different areas.
2. Before a place can be found on a map, the area in which the place is located would have to be determined first.