Genealogy traveling?

A lot of it depends on how much information you already have, and how far back it goes and how far back you want to take it.

Several things impede genealogy research in Germany and Austria: 1.) is the language of course 2.) would be WW2 that saw a lot of records and archives destroyed, 3.) is that as you hit a certain time period, the Sutterlin script becomes extremely difficult to read. 4.) The 30 Years War in the 1600's saw extensive damage to the churches, as many of them were burned down. This means a lot of genealogy research hits a brick wall about 1645, as no records exist in many towns. There are cities and towns of course, that weren't devastated, but far too many were. 5.) Graveyard research is sometimes difficult, because grave sites aren't permanent in many cemeteries. You may only have the plot for 20-30 years. It depends on the city regulations.

That said, I have had wonderful luck with town historians. They have been very helpful to me and seem pleased when someone shows up that has interest in their archives.

What cities are you searching?

Hello Jo, I am interested in Krems, Bregenz, Heidelberg and Cologne.

There are two types of traveling. One is knowing where you are going so that you visit the old churches with the gggg? grandparents were married or born, and maybe by the old farm house, etc. That is tracing the steps.

The other is visiting the areas and trying to research records. Far, far, more difficult. You really do need to hire a local genealogical expert who knows what records might be available, where the records are kept, be able to have access to the records, AND can read the records. And he/she needs to do that type of work before you arrive. Anything less than that, and you are wasting your time.

And, ever before you start the above, you should run through Ancestry.com international to see what records have been indexed.

PS. What do you mean by sans chien? From my very limited French chien is kind of or potentially a vulgar term. The censors here not allow me to define it for you. What did you intent to mean, "Without ......"

Chien means dog. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chien

Perhaps you're confusing it with "chier" which is what a chien might leave behind?

'Sans chien' means 'without dog". Ginger is currently planning a trip with her dog.

Doesn't the dog want to find his roots in Pomerania?

Yes, we are planning a trip later in the year with dog, and earlier in summer without the dog. Don't want to be looking for dead relatives and the dog starts to act up, LOL

Heidelberg hasn't taken a beating since the Thirty Year's War, so you may be able to find something there. Especially with the local university, I would imagine local records are particularly well kept. Perhaps if you contact the Kurpfältziches Musuem (Heidelberg was the capital of the historic Kurpfältz principality at one time, and the region is still colloquially referred to using that term), someone there can point you in the right direction.

WWII wasn't kind to Köln, so I imagine local civic records might be incomplete.

Sounds like fun. Have you tried to search your name on the internet(for example "last name history" as key word search). You might be able to find info on your family. I would imangine that any records would not be in English.

Also do you have any family to contact in Austria or Germany? They may be willing to help find records.

If you can find a local genealogy group/club or local hisorical society they may be able to help you with research tips.

Sounds like fun. Have you tried to search your name on the internet(for example "last name history" as key word search). You might be able to find info on your family. I would imangine that any records would not be in English.

Also do you have any family to contact in Austria or Germany? They may be willing to help find records.

If you can find a local genealogy group/club or local hisorical society they may be able to help you with research tips.

I don't know helpful this will be, as I have not done this in Germany. However, I did a genealogy trip in Poland in 2012. I hired a tour guide/researcher prior to the trip. In my experience, it was totally worth the cost. Again, the situation might be different in Germany, but here are some tips that I can share from my Poland experience.

1. The more specific information you have on your ancestors before the trip, the better. In the case of my husband's grandmother, we had very specific information on the town she lived in, when she was born, when she left, etc. We were able to find a lot of information on her. With most of my ancestors, we had very general information - i.e. they were born in Poznan (a large city), no dates, no church, etc. We weren't very successful finding anything there.
2. Hiring a guide in advance helped, because she was able to arrange for us to go to the church and check the records. If you don't make those arrangements in advance, you may be turned away.
3. We found our guide's ability to translate for us invaluable. Although many people speak English, when we were in my husband's grandmother's small village in Poland, there was very little English spoken.
4. When we went to the government office to track down some records, as you sometimes run into in the States, they weren't the most "helpful" people. Having someone local with us made it much easier to get anyone to help. In addition, we ended up having to fill out some forms to get certain information, and the forms were all in Polish. We needed our guide to help us fill them out.

Hope this helps!

Also you might try www.familysearch.org it is a free, yes I said free, geneological website. They have added information and they are adding more information all the time. I used them a lot before attending a family reunion in Germany so we could make heads and tails of the people we were about to meet and where we fit in. Also you can access Ancestry.com from most major library for no cost. So that was really helpful as well. I did run into some issues with the old German. It is indeed very hard to read, and I have studied German.

Also keep in mind when tracing back through the American side of things, that there were changes to spelling to Americanize the name. For example, my Husband's family dropped the von when they came over and my maiden name is Yager, but it should have been Jager. My husband's great grandmother's last name I have seen spelled 4 different ways. Kohlmuller, Colemiller, Kohlmiller and Colemuller.

Also I am not sure to where you are located, but Salt Lake City and Fort Wayne Indiana have the two best genealogical libraries in the US. So if either are close by, I would say take a road trip:)

Anyone see this article in Slate? It gets a lot of information quite wrong (ie, confusing "Berg" and "Burg", making the preposterous claim that "Berliner" derives from "Son of Berl"..., etc.), but still interesting, and broadly applicable to anyone with a German surname, whether Jewish or Goyim.