How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Mecklenburg-Schwerin, German Empire

Guide to Mecklenburg-Schwerin, German Empire ancestry, family history, and genealogy before 1945: birth records, marriage records, death records, family history, and military records.

Finding Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Mecklenburg-Schwerin
'''Most of the information you need to identify you ancestors and their families will be found in two major record groups: civil registration and church records. To locate these records, follow the instructions in these Wiki articles.'''

1. Find the name of your ancestor's town in family history records.
Records were kept on the local level. You must know the town where your ancestor lived. If your ancestor was a United States Immigrant, use the information in the Wiki article Germany Finding Town of Origin to find evidence of the name of the town where your ancestors lived in Germany. Also, see:
 * Names of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Emigrants 1844-1915
 * The emigration from Mecklenburg-Schwerin to overseas countries, especially after the United States of North America
 * Mecklenburg-Schwerin Census records that have been indexed can help find your family in their Germany home. Be careful that any family data you find in the census is an exact match for everything you know about your family.  It is highly likely that you will find several possible families that are similar to yours.

2. Use gazetteers and/or parish inventories to learn more important details.
Your ancestor's town might have been too small to have its own parish church or civil registration office. Find the location of the Catholic or Lutheran (Evangelical) parish that served your ancestor's locality. Find the name of the civil registration office (standesamt) that serves your ancestor's locality. Use the Wiki article Studying Your German Locality for step-by-step instructions.

Germany was first unified as a nation in 1871. An important gazetteer, Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs, "Meyer's Gazetter" for short, details the place names of villages, towns, counties (kreise), and higher jurisdictions used at that time. In the Research Wiki, FamilySearch Catalog, and FamilySearch Historical Records, the records of Germany are organized using those place names.

At the end of both World Wars, the boundaries of the states were changed dramatically, as areas of Germany were distributed among the Allied nations. Eventually, after re-unification in 1990, the states of Germany settled into what they are today. It is also necessary to understand Germany by this system, as it affects the locations of civil registration offices, archives, and mailing addresses used in correspondence searches.

3. For birth, marriage, and death records after 1 January 1876, use civil registration.
Follow the instructions in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, German Empire Civil Registration.

4. For baptism, marriage, and death records, use church records or parish registers.
Follow the instructions in  Mecklenburg-Schwerin, German Empire Church Records.

5. Use census records as clues to finding family members in church and civil registration records.
You can find probable families in census records, then use church and civil registration records to determine if the family is a match, find additional information on the family, and document your family accurately. Church and civil registration records are primary sources and everything you find in a census record should be proven in primary sources.
 * Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, Census, 1919 (in German), index and images ($)
 * (in German)], index and images. Also at Ancestry.com, (in German), index and images.($)
 * (in German), index and images. Also at Ancestry.com, (in German), index and images.($)
 * (in German), index and images. Also at Ancestry.com, (in German), index and images.($)
 * Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, Census, 1819 (in German), index and images.($)