Freiensteinau Parish, Hesse, German Empire Genealogy

Guide to Freiensteinau Parish, Hesse, Germany ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Jurisdictional Changes
Freiensteinau has belonged to the following independent countries or post-1871 German states:

Place Names
A very good gazetteer to begin with is Meyers Gazetteer. For more information, see the entry for Freien Steinau.

Another essential online gazetteer to check is the Historic Gazetteer from Compgen. For more information, see the entry for Freiensteinau.

Church Records
Church records for this part of the grand duchy of Hesse are held at the Evangelical Church Archive of Kurhessen-Waldeck in Kassel, Germany. The following records have been digitized by the website Archion. Archion requires a subscription. You can learn how to use Archion by clicking here. There are no indexes to these records. More recent records may be restricted.

Freiensteinau
Church records begin in

Radmühl I (Hessisch)
The village of Radmühl was divided by the river Salz into Hessisch Radmühl or Radmühl I (east of the river) and Preußisch Radmühl or Radmühl II (west of the river). Radmühl II belonged to the parish of Unterreichenbach.

Civil Registration
Civil registration for Freiensteinau began in January 1876. Hesse also kept civil registration between 1803 and 1815, during the Napoleonic occupation.

Town Genealogy (OFB or Ortsfamilienbuch)
For more information about compiled genealogies, see the article Germany Town Genealogies.

Societies and Libraries
Hessian Family History Association Hessian Library Information System ‘’hebis’’ Hessian State Archives University and State Library Darmstadt University Library of Johann Christian Senckenberg (Frankfurt)