My son and I are planning a trip to Germany to trace our roots. US naturalization papers show that my G-Grandfather was born in Wirtzburg and his wife was born in Alderberg both in Bavaria. They immigrated to NY in 1884. I suspect that Wirtzburg is now Wurzburg and Alderberg is now Adelberg (near Stuttgart) but I’m unsure. Can anyone help me with this clarification before my son and I make the trip in a couple of weeks?
Thank you,
People here may be able to help with place names but I would also do a little more digging.
Have you gone on to any of the genealogy websites? Familysearch.org is free but you do have to sign up. You do have to evaluate the information you find on there as it is not all correct. You may be able to find links to their birth and christening records from the churches in their home towns. The Family History Library in SLC has a huge amount of microfilmed German Church records and some of those are available to view online. That may help nail down locations for you.
(I found microfilm of German church records from 1680's-1750's when tracing my family. I am not an expert!)
More likely, I suspect that they were always from Würzburg and Adelberg, and at immigration it got changed to "Wirtzburg" and "Alderberg". Or, Alderberg could have been Oldenburg, in Niedersachsen. US immigration officials didn't know much about German geography or spelling.
If you are near a Family History Center, you might go there and look at emigration records from Württemberg. I think Adelberg was in Württemberg, and there was documentation of emigration from Württemberg at that time. The Family History Center has microfilned copies those records. That's how I found some of my relatives that came from Württemberg.
Check your local library's genealogy section. Some Mormon genealogists, who could read the old Sütterlin handwriting, assembled those microfilmed emigration records and compiled them in a series of books called, "Emigration from Württemberg". Some libraries (e.g. Denver) have those books.
First you need to bee sure about the birthplaces. It's very likely that Wirtzburg is Würzburg since the former spelling corresponds to the pronunciation in local Franconian dialect. But there is no "Alderberg" in Bavaria. It might be "Adlersberg" (near Regensburg) or, assuming that they have already immigrated as a couple to the US, rather Adelsberg near Gemünden, approx. 40km north of Würzburg.
If you cannot find your ancestors through the genealogical resarch tools available in the US you may contact the diocesan archive of Würzburg which keeps baptismal records until Dec. 31, 1876. Send them an email to ask how they can help you.
A few months ago I signed up at a genealogy website and was surprised how much information was researchable online. I also took the DNA test to give scientific underpinnings to what I hoped to find. It seems to me that being armed with more information would likely make your visit more productive.
Perhaps you know someone that has access to Ancestry.com or another website. If you have a decent GUESS at a person’s name, date of birth and place of birth, there is a good chance that someone has researched and recorded useful information.
