Death records are some of the most underestimated record types as far as their value and importance are concerned. Before covering the various types of records that give information on death and burial, some of the important reasons for using them are given.

The main reason for using these records, of course, is to determine when a person died. Knowing a person's date of birth and date of death tells you the time period that you can possibly expect to find him in the records that existed where he resided. For example, knowing that an ancestor, who had lived in a village in Mecklenburg, had died in 1815 would save you from wasting time looking for him in the 1819 census of that duchy.

The second reason for using these records is because of the information that they give in addition to the date of death or burial. The most important additional information that is almost always given is the person's age at death. By knowing this it becomes possible to determine the person's approximate year of birth. There are many death records that give the exact birth date of the deceased, or as has already been mentioned in Chapter 18, it may give the age in years, months, and days, making it possible to compute the actual birth date. Often, because of existing records, it is easier and quicker to locate a person's death record than it is his birth record. In doing research you normally locate your direct line ancestor's birth record and then those of the brothers and sisters. Once you have determined when the first child was born, you can then begin looking for the parent’s marriage record. After the marriage record has been found you then start looking for the births of the parents and then the process is repeated. If at any time you find a death date of an individual in another type of record, then before trying to find that person's marriage or birth record you should go to the death records first. If the death records give you the person's age, you would probably be able to locate the birth record much quicker than if you had disregarded the death date and went through the birth records year by year until you found it. The death entry may even make reference to when the person was married, whether the spouse was still living, the names of surviving children and the place of birth if it was a different parish than where he died. The following example may help clarify this. That an assume that an immigrant by the name of Gerhard Wemeler from Recke, Westphalia, Prussia, was listed on the 1850 census as 33 years of age. This would place his birth date around 1817. You next determine what records exist and find that there are christening, marriage, burial, and family registers for this whenever they are available, family registers should always be searched first. This is because the complete family is listed, often with their dates of birth, marriage and death. Fig. 20A is a copy from the family register showing the Wemeler family. The entry gives the birth dates of the children, the marriage date of the parents and the year of death of the father. With this information you would then go to the christening and marriage records to verify the dates. Compiled information such as this should never be accepted at face value because it is not known when the minister made the family register and there is always the possibility for error when he copied it. Normally you would next try to locate the christening dates for the parents; but because the father's year of death is given, you go to the death records first. The death records for this area give the individual's name and the name of the spouse. It gives the age in years, months, and days; and it gives the place of birth of the deceased, thus making it possible to go right to the birth record.

Most of the people doing research in Germany do not realize that there are other church vital records pertaining to death or the following are a few of the more common ones. Fig. 20B is a copy of a parish Grabregister (grave register). It is interesting to note that in the entries for December 29 and 30 to conserve space, the children were buried together. Other records showed that they buried small children with adults as well.

Family Register

Name of the Parents and when married	Name of the children
1812
Gerhard Henrich Wemeler vid No. 24 1863 Maria Elisabeth Brüggensmidt 15 July page 85-95. 109	Mauritius Eugenius 23 Sept. 1814 Gerhard Marcus 24 april 1817 Maria Elisabeth Theresia 3 Feb. 1820

Fig. 20A

Another less commonly used record was the church Einnahme registers (church receipt books). Fig. 20C is a copy from the receipt book found in the parish of Bad Schwartau, Lobeck, Germany, this entry shows the receipt of money for the tolling of the bell for the wife of Hans Peter Bottgers. What this date represents is the burial date for his wife. Also included in these receipt books are entries regarding money received for burial plots and for the funeral cloth.

Grave Register

17 Decbr. 22	Augs. Wilh. Hattenbach age 9 days from Fissau
17 Decbr. 22	Farmer Asmus Siewert age 38 years
17 Decbr. 23	J. Aug. Mac. Wittorff age 2 years
17 Decbr. 29	Anna Catr. Dor. Klopp age 1 1/4 yr. buried with Eng. christ Laage age 8 days
17 Decbr. 30	Hinr. Christ. Schmüsser from Neydorf his two children, Maria Margar age 4 yr. Joh. Friederich Schmüsser 2 yr.

Fig. 20 B

One other vital record which will give death dates is the Leichenpredigten (funeral sermons). Some funeral sermons were very brief and gave very little information while other took up a whole page or more. The size and detail of a sermon depended largely on how prominent a person was and how much money was paid for the sermon. Fig. 20D is an extract from a printed funeral sermon found in Regensburg, Bavaria.

Receipt Bell Toll - Money

1767
8 Jan	The local Hans Peter Böttgers his wife	2 shillings

Fig. 20D

FUNERAL SERMON

Brunner, Michael Christoph, B U. Eisenhandler in R, * 30. 5.1727, + R 3fl. 7. 1732

Brunner, Michael Christoph, citizen and ironworker in Regensburg, born 30 May 1727, died Regensburg 30 July 1732.

Fig. 20D

There are many other records that could be used in addition to the vital records just mentioned. The following are just a few of these:

City chronicles are sometimes very similar to village lineage books or German lineage books. Fig. 20E is an extract from a city chronicle from Dushorn, Hannover, Prussia.

City Chronicle

Hermann Bohme, *28. 12. 1872 in Alsleben oo mit Eva Brautigam, *20. 7. 1871 In Dushorn abgemeldet am 14. 4. 1936 nach Buchten Ihre beiden sohne Hermann und Henry sind in Hoboken In USA. Geboren. Hermann, *19. 1. 1903, wurde Lehrer; Henry, * 4. 10. 1905, ging am 20. 3. 1928 wieder nach USA zuruck, nach Broklin.

Fig. 20E

If a person was a member of a brotherhood such as the Bruderschaft der butter und Kasekaufer (brotherhood of the butter and cheese merchants) you could find vital information from their records of which Fig. 20F is an extract.

Brotherhood Records

Knupper, Harmen: Bruder 28 Nov 1706, Schaffer 1715, Besitzer 1731, Alter1738, oo Bruders Tochter, ergegraben 17 Feb 1739, witwe begr. Jakobi 29 Apr 1768 Sone begr. Michaelis 23 Sep 1711 u. 14 Mar 1724. Tochter Begr. Michaelis 10 May 1712 u. 29 Nov 1719.

Knupper, Harm Phillipp Sohn des vorigen: Bruder 23 Oct 1734, begr. Jakobi Sep 1783

Knupper, Johann Christian, Bruder des Vorigen: Bruder 18 May 1740, begr. 21 Apr 1772 + 15 Apr Frau begr Jakobi 2 Mar 1755

Knupper, Conrad Nicolaes, Bruder des vorigen: Bruder 26 Mar 1750, begr. 19 Feb 1758

Fig. 20F

One other type of record that should be mentioned is the land record. Land records will vary as much as the other German records, depending on where they were made and how they were kept. In many areas, however, there were complete farm histories kept giving vital information concerning the land owners themselves. Fig. 20G is a copy of a farm history in Schleswig-Holstein. To read it you would need to know the following symbols:

* = birth	00 = marriage	+ = death	s = son
t = daughter	geb =maiden name	Wwe = widow

Farm History

Fig. 20G

The major problem with death records is finding the death date for your ancestors, this is because there is no way of knowing just when a person was going to die. There are some ways, however, of finding it quicker, if certain records exist. It doesn’t always matter what types of records are used as long as they were kept on a yearly basis or can be used with other records. Some of the annual church records such as pew registers and confession or prayer rolls are excellent for this if they are available, assuming that you are trying to locate the death date of a Claus Joachim Propp in Bad Schwartau, Lubeck, Germany, whose last child was born in 1803, you first check the confession records for the year 1310 and find him listed, then you check these records ten years later in 1820 and cannot find him. You come back five years to 1815 and find him listed again. You check 1818 and again he is missing. In 1817 he is again listed, see Fig. 20H.

Confession Record

1817	Claus Jochim Propp from Schwartau Christ. Marg. his wife Maria Doroth. her daughter
1818	Widow Christ. Marg. Propp from Schwartau Maria Doroth. her daughter

Fig. 20H

By this method you have only searched 5 years instead of the 15 you would have had to had you searched the death records from the time the last child was born. If the confession records were not made every year, you could have used the pew registers, census records, or tax records for those years that might have been missing.

When searching the marriage or confirmation records of the children or even the death entry of a spouse, you may come across an entry such as “Jurgen Brandt, son of the deceased (Weiland) Phillip Brandt.” This indicates that the father had passed away sometime between when the son was born and when he was either confirmed or married. Coupled with other records, it will help narrow down the time period so that you do not have to search as many years.

There are a few problems concerning unusual death records that probably should be mentioned, among them are deaths as a result of the various wars in germany, for example, in the district of winsen, Hannover, Prussia, a record was kept of those soldiers who were missing in action in the war of 1812 against Russia. This list of 157 men from this one district was published in 1967 in the German periodical “Zeitschrift fur Niederdeutsche Familienkunde,” pages 100-105.

After the Thirty Years' War and because of the total destruction of records, an attempt in southern Germany was made to reconstruct some of these records in order to prove ownership of land and property. These records were called “Renovations Protokolle.”

Many Germans went to sea both for a living and for military duty. The seaman's office in Hamburg, Germany, has a great number of records including deaths at sea, enlistment and pensions.

As can be seen from this chapter, death records are important and play a major role in German research procedures.