• a nice online tutorial to familiarize yourself with what's needed to get started on genealogical research.
• I've written my own Overview of RootsWeb.
• their World Connect Project lets genealogists share their family tree data.
• Social Security Death Index: when you die, and if a Social Security death benefit is paid in your name to someone, your name and some additional information get added to this Index. There's an easy form for requesting SS applications from the Social Security Administration, AND RootsWeb's version of this database allows researchers to add "Post-ems" -- little notes. I used this feature and as a result found distant cousins!
• Selected RootsWeb Mailing Lists:
  • Baden-Wurttemberg
  • Pfalz-L
  • Rhein-Pfalz-L
  • Other German Mailing Lists

• FamilySearch.Org includes a range of online resources and databases to help you find genealogical records.
• Locate the nearest Family History Center near you
• Ordering church records from LDS for a particular town:
  
  • You can see what's available by going to www.familysearch.org.
  • Then select CUSTOM SEARCH.
  • Then select FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY CATALOG
  • Then select PLACE
  • Then type in the name of the town you're researching

• Locating and Using Religious Records for Family History by Ancestry.com.

Note:BabelFish will translate German text or Web sites for you (more or less accurately). Use it to read those resources marked with [German language].

• German Genealogy Research Companion, by Shirley Riemer, Lorelei Press ([email protected]), PO Box 221356, Sacramento, CA 95822-8356; $28 + $4 S&H. See also Resources for the book.
• If I can, you can decipher German script, by Edna Bentz; $16.50 through Amazon.com.
• A quick course in deciphering old German script
• A graphic image of the old German alphabet
• Genealogy.Net, a German-based genealogy Web site (with an English interface) maintains a list of all the Ortsippenbuchs currently published. An Ortsippenbuch is a compilation (typed!) of mostly church records for a particular town, grouped by surname, and excellently cross-referenced. The LDS has most of them in Salt Lake City.
• Jewish Shtetl Seeker, an online tool created by the Jewish Genealogy community that allows you to find European towns within a given number of miles from a specified European city or town.

• Darmstadt:
  Hessische Staatsarchiv Darmstadt [get contact info]
  
• Wuerttemberg:
  Emigration from Wuerttemberg [German language]
  Main public records Stuttgart, Konrad Adenauer route 4, 70173 Stuttgart
  Tel.: 0711/212 4324, fax: 0711/212 4360
  
• Baden:
  Baden Emigration Index
  Compiled by genealogist Carla Heller
  
• Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe
  N�rdliche Hildapromenade 2
  76133 Karlsruhe
  Germany/DEUTSCHLAND
  E-Mail: [email protected]
  "The records of the former emigration authority for the state of Baden are today permanently stored in the Baden general state archive (Generallandesarchiv) in the city of Karlsruhe, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. The alphabetical INDEX containing data from the records has already been committed to microfilm by the LDS (Mormon) Family History Library. The films are exact photographic reproductions of the ORIGINAL Index, and the filming took place at the Generallandesarchiv itself in Karlsruhe in 1978. The films in the 38-roll series are available for research in local LDS Family History Centers in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and most of Europe. Films are loaned to local Family History Centers upon payment of the nominal per-roll loan fee of approximately $3.65 US."

  "If emigration data is found on your ancestor by the Generallandesarchiv staff, there is a minimum fee of at least $40.00 US to obtain this information (not including any costs for international postage, currency exchange, or bank fees)."

• Genealogy and the Rheinpfalz
• The Rheinpfalz , compiled and maintained by Fred Krebs, of Germany. On the particular topic of the history of Pfalz, see www.krebs-onl.de/pfalz/lines.htm and www.krebs-onl.de/pfalz/owner.htm.
• http://www2.genealogy.net/gene/reg/BAY/opf-en.htm.

• Hacker�s Auswunderlingen den Rheinpfalz in 18^th Jahrhundert (book to be found in large public library or perhaps on film at FHC.

• The 1818 map of the Rheinpfalz region.

• Landesarchiv Speyer
  (Civil?) Archives of the Palatinate.
  Location: Otto-Mayer-Str. 9, 67346 Speyer.
  Postal address: Postfach 1608, 67326 Speyer.
  Tel. 06232-9192-0
  

• Zentralarchiv der Evangelischen Kirche der Pfalz
  To visit:
  Domplatz 6, in Speyer
  (along the Rhein River, due south of Frankfurt)
  Telephone: 06 232 / 677-180/181
  Fax: 06 232 667-234
  Postal address:
  Postfach 1720
  67343 Speyer, GERMANY
  Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 am-4pm; closed for lunch. Appointment required.
  Fee: 8 DM for up to 4 hours
  15 DM for all day
  (no additional charge for having a second person there to interpret.)

  Limited research available via postal mail, for a fee of 25 DM per half hour up to about 200 DM. Requests must be in German, and must include at a minimum, a full name, date range and town (microfiche is organized by town). Receiving results can take up to 3 or more weeks. 

• Emigration from the Rheinpfalz:
  Institut fur Pfalzische Geschichte und Volkskunde
  (Institute for History and Folklore of the Pfalz)
  Roland Paul, Director, speaks excellent English, is an historian with an excellent understanding of the region, and very willing to answer questions, if you call him or if he's there. I understand he does not respond to mail, but will talk by phone:
  +49 (631) 36 47 302.
  
  For mail correspondence:
  67653 Kaiserslautern

• To visit:
  Benzinoring 6
  67657 Kaiserslautern
  Tel: +49 (631) 3647
  Fax: +49 (631) 360 93 47
  
  Hours:
  Monday � Thursday 9am � Noon; 2pm � 4pm;
  Friday 9am � Noon.

• Civil Records for the Pfalz region immediately surrounding Bad Munster am Stein
  Verbandgemeinde
  Gemeinde Bad Munster am Stein (Civil Records)
  Standesamt, Room 101
  55579 Bad Munster am Stein / Ebernburg
  Archivist: Frau Elfeld (German language only)
  Make appointment.
  Covers most of the years (varies by town) from 1805 through 1970 for the following towns:
  Bad Munster (1912-1969)
  Altenbamberg (1808-1969)
  Hoschstatten (1818-1969)
  Ebernburg (1805-1969)
  Feilbingert (1807-1970)
  Hallgarten (1807-1970)

• Bad Kreuznach

  Civil Records:
  Verbandsgemeinderer waltung
  Tel: +49 671 910
  Ask for Standesamt and inquire for the records
  Or
  City Hall/Registry Office
  Mrs. Mosbacher (pronounced Moos-Bocker)
  Bruckes 1, 55545 Bad Kreuznach
  +49 671 800 263l
  Make Appointment.

  Protestant Church Records:
  Mr. Lerman (priest)
  +49 671 31760
  lives in Bretzenheim, working on the BK church archives.
  In May 2000, he was only working in the archives one day per week, a Tuesday.
  Make appointment.

• Judische Pfalz
  
  • The folks who run Jewishgen.org also run the International Jewish Cemetery Project. I searched this site and found that the Jewish Altenbamberg cemetery has already been documented.
  • Apparently, there are restrictions limiting the information about the people buried within these cemeteries that can be put online, but the project has made the results of its research available on CD-ROM, orderable for $35 from IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies), PO Box 251683, West Bloomfield, MI, 48325-1683 USA.
  • Judische Grabstatten im Kreis Bad Kreuznach: Geschichte und Gestaltung, published by Heimatkundluche Schriftenreihe des Landkreises Bad Kreuznach, 1995, includes diagrams and photos, names on gravestones and other information about the Jewish cemeteries and people of the region.
    
• Neustadt Area:

Fremdenverkehrs- und Heilbaderverband
Rheinland-Pfalz e.V.
Gesch.St. Pfalz
Martin Luther Str. 69
67433 Neustadt
phone 06321-2466

Caritos-Secretariat
Hetzelstr. 11
67433 Neustadt
phone 06321-2564
a private company providing genealogy assistance

Martin-Luther-Kirchengemeinde
Pfarramt 1
Kirchstr. 40
67433 Neustadt
phone 06321-88240

Pfarramt catholic
Hamback
Freiheitstr. 2
67434 Neustadt
phone 06321-2861

Reference: Janet Kral

• "Verbandsgemeinde Gau-Algesheim," in
  Gau-Algesheim and "Evabgekuscges Pfarramt Appenheim" in Appenheim

• Altenbamberg
• Feilbingert

The following were pulled from the new mailing list on Rootsweb, RHEIN-PFALZ-L.

• The organisation and government of German regions changed several times. The sites http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/regio-d.htm [German-language] and http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/regio.htm (in English) provide a good description of this history.
• The following sites have good tips for beginning your research in Germany:
  • http://www.genealogienetz.de/misc/anfaenger-d.html [German language]
  • http://www.genealogienetz.de/misc/anfaenger.html#gaz (in English)
• An excellent summary of resources for emigration and immigration records is at: http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/WELT/usa.html
• A very full listing of resources is at http://www.genealogienetz.de/misc/www_sources.html
• Here's some places you may be able to go to for help, though they aren't all IN the Rheinland-Pfalz:
  • Genealogical Association of English-speaking researchers in Europe.
    Mailto: [email protected]
    
  • The Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany WorldGenWeb Project, by Brandilyn Rae Ruppell
  • Westdeutsche Gesellschaft f�r Familienkunde [German language]

Back to Intro | Back to Part I | Back to Part II | Back to Part III | Back to Part IV | Back to Part V | Back to Part VI | Postscript | The End